PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE , VOL. 64. NO .

3, MARCH 1976

329

A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer

over Kilometer Distances: H'istorical Perspective
and Recent Research
HAROLD E. PUTHOFF.

MEMBER, IEEE , AND

RUSSELL TARG,

SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE

Abstract-For more than 100 ye.a:rs, scientists have anempted to

determine the truth or falsity of claims for the existence of a perceptual
channel whereby certain individuals are able [0 perceive and describe
remote data not presented to any k.nown sense. This paper presents an
outline of the history of scientific inquiry into such so-<:aUed pannor
mal perception and surveys the current state of the art in parapsycho
logical research in the United Stales and abroad. The nature of this
perceptual channel is e:u.mined in a series of experiments carried out
irt the Electronics and Bioengineering Labontory of Stanford Re.se:arch
Institute. The perceptual modality most extensively investigated is the
ability of both ex.perienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers to
view, by innate mental processes, remote geographical or technical
targets including buildings, roads. and labontory apparatus. The ac
cumulated data indicate that the phenomenon is not a sensitive func
tion of distance, and Faraday cq-e shielding does not in any apparent
way degrade the quality and accuncy of perception. On the basis of
this research , some areas of physics are suggested from which a descrip
tion or explanation of the phenomenon could be forthcoming.

unification brought about by the work of Ampere, Faraday ,

and Maxwell. Since the early work, however . we have seen the
development of information theory, quantum theory, and
neUIophysiological resear ch, and these disciplines provide
powerful conceptual tools that appear to bear directly on the
issue. in fact, several physicists (Section V) are now of the
opinion that these phenomena are not at all inconsisten~ with
the framework of modern physics: the often-held view that
observations of this type are a priori incompatible with known
laws is erroneous in that such a concept is based on the naive
'realism prevalent before the development of quantum theory.
In the emerging view, it is ac cepted that research in this area
can be condu cted so as to l,ln cover not just a catalog of inter
esting events, but rather patterns of cause--effect relationships
of the type that lend themselves to analysis and hypothesis
in the forms with which we are familiar in the physical
l. INTRODUCTION
sciences. One hypothesis is that information transfer under
conditions of sensory shielding is mediated by extremely
"XT IS THE PROVINCE of natural science to investigate
na ture, impartially and without prejudice" [I]. Nowhere low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves, a proposal that
in scientific inquiry has this dictum met as great a chal does not seem to be ruled out by any obvious physical or
Further , the development of infor mation
lenge as in the area of so-caUed extrasensory perception (ESP), biolOgical facts.
the dete ction of remote stimuli not mediated by the usual theory makes it possible to characterize and quantify the
sensory processes. Such phenomena , although under scie ntific performance of a communications channel regardless of
consideration for over a centUIY, have historically been fraught
the underlying mechanism.
with unreliability and controversy, and validation of the phe
For the past three years, we have had a program in the
nomena by accepted scientific methodology has been slow in Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of the Stan
coming. Even so, a recent survey conducted by the Brit ish ford Research Institute (SRI) to investigate those facets of
publication New Scientist revealed that 67 percent of nearly
hUman perception that appear to fall outside the range of well
1500 responding readers (the maj ority of whom are working
understood perceptual/processing capabilities. Of particular
scientists and technologists) considered ESP to be an estab interest is a human information-accessing capability that we
lished fact or a likely possibility, and 88 percent held the
call " remote viewing." This phenomenon pertains to the
investigation of ESP to be a legitimate scientific undertaking ability of certain individuals to access and describe , by means
[2) .
of mental processes, information SOUIces blocked from ordi
A review of the literature reveals that although experiments
nary perception, and generally accepted as secure against such
by reputable researchers yielding positive results were begun acces s.
over a century ago (e.g., Sir William Crookes' study of D. D.
In particular, the phen o menon we have investigated most
Home, 1860's) [3 J. many co nsider the study of these phe extensively is the ability of a subject to view remote geograph
nomena as only recently emerging from the realm of quasi ical locations up t o several thousand kilometers distant from
science. One reason for this is that, despite experimental his physical location (given only a known person on whom to
target).l We have carrie4 o ut more than fifty experiments
results, no satisfactory theoretical construct had been advanced
to correlate data or to predict new experimental outcomes. under controUed laboratory conditions with several individuals
Consequently, the area in question remained for a long time whose remote perceptual abilities have been developed suf
ficiently to aUow them at times to describe correctly-often in
in the recipe stage reminiscent of electrodynamics before the
great detail-geographical or technical material such as build
ing s, roads, laborat ory apparatus, and the like.
Manuscript received July '25, 1975; revised November 7,1975. The
As observed in the laboratory, the basic phenomenonappean
submiss ion of this paper was encouraged aCler review of an advance
proposal. This work was supponed by the Foundation for hra.sensory
to cover a range of subjective experiences variously referred to
Investigation and the Paraps ychology Foundation . New York, NY; the
lnstitute of Noetic Sciences, Palo Alto , CA; and the National Aero
nautics and Space: Administration. Wlde:r Contract NAS 7 100.
The authors are With the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory,
Stanford Rese3J"ch Institute, Menlo Park , CA 94025.

'Our initial work in this area was reponed in NaruTe r41, and re
prinled in the IEEE COm mun. Soc. N~ws/~n~r , vol . 13, Jan. 1975 .

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. MARCH 1976

330

Fig. l. Airpon in San Andres. CoLombia. used as remote-viewing target, along with sketch produced by subject
in California.

In the literature as autoscopy(in the medical literature); exteri

orization or disassociation (psychological literature); simple
clairvoyance, traveling clairvoyance, or out-of-body experience
(parapsychological literature); or astral projection (occult liter
ature). We choose the term "remote viewing" as a neutral

descriptive term free from prior associations and bias as to

mechanisms.
The development at SRI of a successful experimental pro
cedure to elicit this capability has evolved to the point where
persons such as visiting government scientists and contract
monitors, with no previous exposure to such concepts, have
learned to perform well; and subjects who have trained over a
one-year period have performed excellently under a variety of
experimental conditions. Our accumulated data thus indicate
that both specially selected and unselected persons can be
assisted in developing remote perceptual abilities up to a
level of useful information transfer.
In experiments of this type, we have three principal findings,
First, we have established that it is possible to obtain signifi
cant amounts of accurate descriptive information about remote
locations. Second, an increase in the distance from a few
meters up to 4000 km separating the subject from the scene
to be perceived does not in any apparent way degrade the
quality or accuracy of perception. Finally, the use of Faraday
cage electrical shielding does not prevent high-quality descrip
tions from being obtained.
To build a coherent theory for the explanation of these
phenomena, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of
what constitutes the phenomena. In this paper, we first briefly
summarize previous efforts in this field in Section II. We then
present in Sections HI and IV the results of a series of more

than fifty experiments with nine subjects carried out in our

own laboratory, wttich represent a sufficiently stable data base
to permit testing of various hypotheses concerning the func
tioning of this channeL Finally, in Section Y, we mdicate
those areas of physics and information theory thar appear to
be relevant to an understanding of certain aspects of the
phenomena.
First, however, we present an illustrative example generated
. in an early pilot experiment. As will be clear from our later
discussion, this is not a "best-ever" example, but rather a
typical sample of the level of proficiency that can be reached
and that we have come to expect in our research ,
Three subjects participated in a long-distance experiment
focusing on a s~ries of targets in Costa Rica. These subjects
said they had never been to Costa Rica. In this experiment,
one of the experimenters (Dr. Puthoff) spent ten days traveling
through Costa Rica on a combination business/pleasure trip.
This information was all that was known to the subjects about
the traveler's itinerary. The experiment called for Dr. Puthoff
to ke~p a detailed record of his location and activities, includ
ing photographs of each of seven target days at 1330 PDT.
A total of twelve daily descriptions were collected before the
traveler's return: six responses from one subject, five from
another, and one from a third.
The third subject who submitted the single response supplied
a drawing for a day in the middle of the series. (The subject's
response, together with the photographs taken at the site, are
shown in Fig. I). Although Costa Rica is a mountainous
country, the subject unexpectedly perceived the traveler at a
beach and ocean setting. With some misgiving, he described an
airport on a sandy beach and an airstrip with the ocean at the

PUTHOFF AND TARG : PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

end (correct). An airport building also was drawn , and shown

to have a large rectangular overhang (correct) . The traveler
had taken an unpLanned one-day side trip to an offshore island
and at the time of the experiment had just di sembarked from a
plane at a small island airport as described by the subject
4000 km away. The sole discrepancy was that the subject's
drawing showed a Quonset~hut type of building in place of the
rectangular structure.
The above description was chosen as an example to illustrate
a major 'point observed a number of times throughout the
program to be described. Contrary to what may be expected,
a subject's description does not necessarily portray what may
reasonably be expected to be correct (an educated or "safe"
guess), but often runs counter even to the subject's own
expectations.
We wish to stress again that a result such as the above is not
unusual. The remaining submissions in this ex.periment pro
vided further examples of exceUent correspondences between
target and response . (A target period of poolside relaxation
was identified; a drive through a tropical forest at the base of
a truncated volcano was described as a drive through a jungle
below a large bare table mountain; a hotel~room target descrip
tion , including such. details as rug coLor, was correct; and so
on.) So as to determine whether such matches were simply
fortuitous-tru.t is, could reasonably be expected on the basis
of chance alone-Dr. Puthoff was asked after he had returned
to blind match the twelve descriptions to his seven target
locations . On the basis of this conservative evaluation proce~
dure, which vastly underestimates the statistical significance
of the individual descriptions, five correct matches were ob~
tained . ~his number of matches is significant at p = 0.02 by
exact binomial calculation .:!
The observation of such unexpectedly high-quality descrip
tions early in our program led to a large-scale study of the
ph.enomenon at SRI under sec ure double~blind conditions (I.e.,
target unknown to experimenters as well as subjects), with
independent random target selection and blind judging. The
results, presented in Sections III and IV, provide strong evi
dence for the robustness of this phenomenon whereby a
human perceptual modality of extreme sensitivity can detect
complex remote stimuli.
lI . BACKGROUND

Although we are approaching the study of these phenomena

as physicists, it is not yet possible to separate ourselves entirely
from the language of the nineteenth century when the labora~
tory study of the paraJl0nn21 was begun. Consequently, we
continue to use terms such at "paranormal," ' 'telepathy,'' and
the like. However, we intend only to indicate a process of
information transfer Wlder conditions generally accepted as
secure against such transfer and with no prejudice or occult
assumptions as to the mechanisms involved. As in any other
scientific pursuit, the purpose is to coUect the observables that
result from experiments and to try to determine the functional
relationships between these observables and the laws of physics
as they are currently understood.
'The probability of II correct daily match by chance for any given
transcript iJ p = t. Therefore. the probability of at least five correct
matches by chance out of twelve tries can be calculated from
p

11 12< (l)i
(6)(IH)
=

="

It;i!(12-i)!

0.02.

331

Organized research into so-..called psychic functioning began

roughly in the time of 1. 1. Thomson, Sir Oliver Lodge , and
Sir William Crookes, all of whom took part in the founding of
the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882 in England.
Crookes, for example, carried out !tis principal investigations
with D. D. Home, a Scotsman who grew up in America and
returned to England in 1855 [3}. According to the notebooks
and published reports of Crookes, Home had demonstrated
the ability to cause objects to move without touching them.
We should note in passing that, Home, unlike most subjects,
worked only in the light and spoke out in the strongest pos
sible terms against the darkened seance rooms popular at the
time [5] .
Sir William Crookes was a pioneer in the study of electrical
discru.rge in gases and in the development of vacuum tubes,
some types of which still bear his name. Although everything
Crookes said about electron beams and plasmas was accepted,
nothing he said about the achievements of D. D. Home ever
achieved that status. Many of his colleagues, who had not
observed the experiments with Home,stated publicly that they
thought Crookes had been deceived, to which Crookes angrily
responded:
Will not my critics give me credit for some amount of common
sense? Do they not imagine that the obvious precautions, which
occur to them as soon as the y ~it down to pick. holes in my
experiments, have occurred.to me also in the course of my pro~
longed and patient investigation? The answer to this, as to aU
other objections is, prove it to be an error, by showing where
Ihe error lie~, or if a trick., by shov.i.ng how lhe trick is per
formed. Try the experiment fuUy and fairly. If then fraud be
found. expose it; if it be a (ruth, proclaim it. This is the only
scientific procedure, and it is thai I propose steadily to pursue

I] I
In the United States, scientific interest in the paranormal
was centered in the universities. In 1912, 10hn Coover [6J
was established in the endowed Chair of Psychical Research at
Stanford University. In the 1920 's, Harvard University set up
research programs ~th George Estabrooks and L. T. Troland
[71. [81 . It was in this framework that, in 1930, William
McDougall invited Dr. 1. B. Rhine and Dr. Louisa Rhine to
join the Psychology Department at Duke University [91 . For
more t han 30 years, signiflcant work was carried out at Rhine's
Duke University Laboratory. To examine the existence of
paranormal perception, he used the nowfamous ESP cards
containing .t boldly printed picture of a star, cross, square,
circle. or wavy lines. Subjects were asked to name the order
of these cards Ul a freshly shuffled deck of twenty-five such
cards . To test for telepathy, an experimenter would look at
the cards one at a time, and a subject suitably separated from
the sender would attempt to determine which card was being
viewed.
Dr. 1. B. Rhine together with Dr. J. G. Pratt carried out
thousands of experiments of this type under widely varying
conditions (t 0 J. The statistical results from these experiments
indicated that some individuals did indeed possess a paranor
mal perceptual ability in that it was possible to obtain an
arbitrarily high degree of improbability by continued testing
of a gifted subject.
The work of Rhine has been challenged on many grounds,
however , including accusations of improper handling of statis~
tics , error, and fraud. With regard to the statistics, the general
consensus of statisticians today is tru.t if fault is to be found
in Rhine's work, it wollid have to be on other than statistical
grounds [Ill. With regard to the accusations of fraud, the

most celebrated case of criticism of Rhine 's work , that of

G. R. Prj", [121. ended 17 years after it began when the
accusation of fraud was retracted by its author in an anicle
entitled "Apology to Rhine and Soal, " published in the same
journaL in which it was first put forward (L 3). It should also
be noted that parapsychological researchers themselves re
cently exposed fraud in their own laboratory when they
encountered it {141 .
At the end of the 1940's, Prof. S. G. Soal, an English mathe
matician 'working with the SPR, had carried out hundreds of
card guessing experiments involving tens of thousands of calls
[151 . Many of these experiments were carried out over ex
tended distances. One of the most notable experiments was
conducted with Mrs. Gloria Stewan between London and
Antwerp. This experiment gave results whose probability of
occurring by chance were less than 10- 8 . With the publication
of Modern Experiments in Telepathy by Soal and Bateman
(both of whom were statisticians), it appeared that card guess
ing experiments produced significant results, on the average. J
The most severe criticism of all this work, a criticism diffi
cui[ to defend against in principle, is that leveled by the wen
known British parapsychological critic C. E. M. Hansel [17],
who began his examination of the ESP hypothesis with the
stated assumption, "In view of the a prion' arguments against
it we know in advance that telepathy. etc., cannot occur."
Therefore, based on the "a priori unlikelihood" of ESP,
Hansel's examination of the literature centered primarily on
the possibility of fraud, by subjects or investigators. He
reviewed in depth four experiments which he regarded as
providing the best evidence of ESP: the Pearce-Pratt distance
series [18]; the Pratt-Woodruff (19) series, both COnducted
at Duke; and Soal's work with Mrs. Stewart and Basil Shackle
ton [l 5 1. as well as a more recent series by Soal and Bowden
[20]. Hansel showed, in each case, how fraud could have been
committed (by the experimenters in the Pratt-Woodruff and
Soal-Bateman series, or by the subjects in the Pearce-Pratt
and Soal-Bowden experiments). He gave no direct evidence
that fraud wa.s committed in these experiments, but said, "If
the result could have arisen through a trick, the experiment
must be considered unsatisfactory proof of ESP, whether or
not it u finally decided that such a trick wa.s in fact used " ( 17,
p. 18 J. As discussed by Honorton in a review of the field
[21 ], Hansel's conclusion after 241 pages of careful scrutiny
therefore was that these experiments were not "fraud-proor'
and therefore in principle could not serve as conclusive proof
of ESP.
Even among the supporters of ESP research and its results,
there remained the consistent problem tbat many successful
subjects eventually lost their ability and their scores gradually
drifted toward chance results. This decline effect in no way
erased their previous astronomical success; but it was a disap
pointment since if paranormal perception is a na~ural ability,
one would like to see subjects imprOving with practice rather
than getting 'ilIorse.
One of the first successful attempts to overcome the decline
effect was in Czechoslovakia in the work of Or. Milan Ryzl, a
chemist with the Institute of Biology of the Czechoslovakian
Academy of Science and also an amateur hypnotist (22].
Through the use of hypnosis, together with feedback and
'Re~nUy, some of the early Soat experiments have been criticized
[16 J . However, his long-distance experiments cited here were judged
in 8 double-blind fashion of the type that escaped the criticism of the
earlyexperiroenu.

reinforcement, he developed several outstanding subjects, one

of wh.om, Pavel Stepanek , has worked with experimenters
around the world for more than 10 years.
Ryzl's pioneering work came as an answer to the questions
raised by the 1956 ClBA Foundation conference on extra
sensory perception. The CrnA Chemical Company has annual
meetings on topics of biological and chemical interest , and
that same year they assembled several prominent parapsy
chologists to have a state--of-the~art conference on ESP [23J.
The conference concluded that little progress would be made
in parapsychology research until a repeatable experiment
could be found; namely, an experiment that different experi
menters could repeat at will and that would reliably yield a
statistically significant result.
Ryzl had by t 962 accomplished that goaL His primary con
tribution was a decision to interact with the subject as a per
son, to try to build up his confidence and ability . His protocol
depended on "working with" rather than " running" his sub
jects. RyzJ's star subject , Pavel Stepanek , has produced highly
significant results with many contemporary researchers [24]
[29]. In these experiments, he was able to tell with 60-percent
reliability whether a hidden card was green side or white
side up , yielding statistics of a million to one with only a
thousand trials .
As significant as such results are statistically, the information
channel is imperfect, containing noise along with the signal.
When considering how best to use such a channel, one is led
[Q the communication theory concept of the introduction of
redundancy as a means of coding a message to combat the
effects of a noisy channel (30). A prototype experiment by
Ryzl using such techniques has proved to be successful. Ryzl
had an assistant select randomly five groups of Uuee digits
each. These 15 digits were then encoded into binary form and
translated into a sequence of green and white cards in sealed
envelopes. By means of repeated calling and an elaborate
majority vote protocol, Ryzl was able after 19 350 calls by
Stepanek (averaging 9 s per can) to correctly identify all IS
numbers, a result significant at p = } 0- 15 The hit rate for
individual calls was 61.9 percent, 11 978 hits, and 7372 misses
[311
Note Added in Proof; It has been brought to our attention
that a similar procedure was recently used to transmit without
error the word "peace" in International MOrSe Code (1. C.
Carpenter, " Toward the effective utilization of enhanced
weak-signal ESP effects," presented at the Annual Meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of SCience,
New York , NY, Jan. 27 , 197 5).
The characteristics of such a channel can be specified in
accordance with the precepts of communication theory. The
bit rate associated with the information channel is calculated
from (30)
R = H(x)- Hy(x)

(1)

where H(x) is the uncertainty of the source message containing

symbols with a priori probability Pi :
H(x) = -

,
L

Pi log, Pi

(2)

;=1

and Hy(x) is the conditional entropy based on thea posteriori

probabilities that a received signal was actually transmitted :
Hy(x) =-

,
L

i.i=1

p(i,j) log, Pi(j)

(3)

PUTHOFF AND TARG : PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR lNFORMATION TRANSFER

t,

For Stepanek's run, with Pi =

Pj (j) = 0.6} 9 , and an average
time of 9 s per choice, we have a source uncertainty H(x) = 1
bit and a calculated bit rate
R '" 0.041 bit /symbol
Or

R / T"" 0.0046 bit/s.

(Since the 1 S-<hgit number (49 .8 bits) actually was transmitted

at the rate of 2.9 X 10- 4 bitls, an increase in bit rate by a
factor of about 20 could be expected on the basis of a coding
scheme more optimum than that used in the experiments_ See ,
for example, Appendix A.)
Dr.. Charles Tart at the University of California has written
extensively on the so-called decline effect. He considers that
having subjects attempt to guess cards, or perform any other
repetitious task for which they receive no feedback, foUows
the classical technique for deconditioning any response. He
thus considers card guessing "a technique for extinguishing
psych.ic functioning in the laboratory" (32].
Tart's injunctions of the mid-sixties were being heeded at
Maimonides Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, by a team of researchers
rha t included Dr.. Montague Uliman, who was director of
research for the hospital; Dr. Stanley Krippner ; and, later,
Charles Honorton. These three worked together for several
years on experiments on the occurrence of telepathy in dreams.
In the course of a half-dozen experimental series, they found
in their week-long sessions a number of subjects who had
dreams that consistently were highly descriptive of pictorial
material that a remote sender was looking at throughout the
night. This work is described in detail in the experimenters'
book Dream Telepathy (33 J. Honorton is continuing work
of this free-response type in whicil the subject has no precon
ceived idea as to what the target may be_
In his more recent work with subjects in the waking state,
Honorton is providing homogeneous stimulation to the subject
who is to describe color slides viewed by another person in a
remote room. In this new work, the subject listens to wh.ite
noise via earphones and views an homogeneous visual field
imposed through the use of Ping-Pong ball halves to cover the
subject's eyes in conjunction wlth diffuse ambient illumina
tion. In this so-caUed Ganzfeld setting, subjects are again able,
now in the waking state, to give correct and often h.ig.hJy
accurate descriptions of the material belng viewed by the
sender (34).
In Honorton's work and elsewhere, it apparently has been
the step away from the repetitive forced-choice experiment
that has opened the way for a wide variety of ordinary people
to demonstrate significant functioning in the laboratory. with
out being bored into a decline effect_
This survey would be incomplete if we did not indicate
certain aspects of the current state of research in the USSR_
It is clear from translated documents and other sources (35 J
that many laboratories in the USSR are engaged in paranormal
research.
Since the 1930's, in the laboratory of L. Vasiliev (Leningrad
Institute for Brain Research), there has been an interest in the
use of telepathy as a method of influencing the behavior of a
person at a distance. In Vasiliev's book Experiments in Mental
Suggesn'on, he makes it very clear that the bulk of his labora
tory's experiments were aimed at long-distance communica
tion combined with a form of behavior modification; for
example, putting people at a distance to sleep through hyp
nosis (36) .

333

Similar behavior modification types of experiments have been

carried out in recent times by I. M. Kogan, Chairman of the
Bioinformation Section of the Moscow Board of the Popov
Society . He is a Soviet engineer who, until 1969, published
extensively on the theory of telepathic communication [371
(40 J. He was concerned with three principal kinds of experi
ments: mental suggestion without hypnosis over short dis
tances, in which the percipient attempts to identify an Object;
mental awakening over short distances, in which a subject is
awakened from a hypnotic sleep at the "beamed" suggestion
from the hypnotist; and long-range (intercity) telepathic com
munication. Kogan's main interest has been to quantify the
channel capacity of the paranormal charmel. He finds that the
bit rate decreases from 0..1 bitls for laboratory experiments
to 0.005 bit ls for his 1000-km intercity experiments,
In the USSR, seriOUS consideration is given to the hypothesis
that telepathy is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF)
electromagnetic propagation. (The pros and cons of trus
hypothesis are discussed in Section V of this paper.) In
general, the entire field of paranormal research in the USSR
is part of a larger one concerned with the interaction between
electromagnetic field s and living organisms [41] , [421 . At
the First International Congress on Parapsychology and
Psychotronics in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1973, for example,
Kholodov spoke at length about the susceptibility of living
systems to extremely low-lE;vel ac and dc fields. He described
conditioning effects on the behavior of fIsh resulting from the
application of 10 to 100 IlW of RF to their tank (431 . The
USSR take these data seriously in that the Soviet safety re
quirements for steady-state microwave exposure set limits
at 10 pW/cm1. , whereas the United States has set a steady-state
limit of 10 mW/cm' (441 . Kholodov spoke also about the
nonthennal effects of microwaves on animals' central nervous
systems. His experiments were very carefully carried out and
are characteristic of a new dimension in paranormal research.
The increaSing importance of this area in Soviet research was
indicated recently when the Soviet Psychological Association
issued an unprecedented position paper calling on the Soviet
Academy of Sciences to step up efforts in this area (451.
They recommended that the newly formed Psychological
Institute within the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the
'Psychological Institute of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences
review the area and consider the creation of a new laboratory
within one of the institutes to study persons with unusual
abilities. They also recommended a comprehensive evaluation
of experiments and theory by the Academy of Sciences' Insti
tute of BiophYSics and Institute for the Problems of informa
tion Transmission_
The Soviet research, along with other behavioristically
oriented work, suggests that in addition to obtaining overt
responses such as verbalizations or key presses from a subject,
it should be possible to obtain objective evidence of informa
tion transfer by direct measurement of physiological parame
ters of a subject. Kamiya, Lindsley, Pribram, Silverman,
Walter, and others brought together to discuss physiological
methods to detect ESP functioning, have suggested that a
whole range of electroencephalogram (EEG) responses such as
evoked potentials (EP's), spontaneous EEG, and the contingent
negative variation (CNV) might be sensitive indicators of the
detection of' remote stimuli not mediated by usual sensory
processes {461.
Early experimentation of this type was carried out by
Douglas Dean at the Newark CoUege of Engineering_ In his

334

PROC EEDINGS OF THE IEEE . MARCH 19"'6

search (or physiological correlates of information trarisfer . he

used the plethysmograph to measure changes in the blood
volume in a finger, a sensitive indicator of autonomic nervous
system functiomng [471 . A plethysmographic measurement
was made on the finger of a subject during telepathy experi
meots . A sender looked at randomly selected target cards
consisting of names known to the subject , together with names
unknown to him ( selected at random from a telephone book),

The names of the known people were contributed by the sub

ject and 'were to be of emotional significance to him. Dean
found signiricant changes in the chart recording of finger
blood volume when the remote sender was looking at those
names known to the subject as compared with those names
randomly chosen .
Three other experiments using the physiological approach
have now been published. The first work by Tart [481, a later
work by Lloyd {49], and most recently the work by the
authors (4] all foUow a similar procedure . Basically, a su bject
is closeted in an electrically shielded room while his EEG is
recorded . Meanwhile, in another laboratory , a seco nd person
is stimulated fr o m time to time, and the time of that st imulus
is marked on the magnetic-tape recording of the subject's EEG .
The subject does not know when the remote stimulus periods
are as compared with the nonstimulus periods .
With regard to choice of stimulus for our own experimenta
tion , we noted that in previous work others had attempted;
without success, to detect evoked potential changes in a sub
ject's EEG in response to a single stroboscopic flash stimulus
observed by another subject (SO I. In a discussion of tlut
experiment, Kam..iya suggested that because of the unknown
temporal characteristics of the information channel, it might
be more appropriate to use repetitiv6 bursts of light to increase
the probability of detecting information transfer (51 J. There
fore , in our study we chose to use a stroboscopic flash train of
I O~ duration as the remote stimulus.
In the design of the study, we assumed that the application
of the remote stimulus would result in responses similar to
those obta ined under conditions of direct stimulation . For
example, when an individual is stimulated with a low
frequency 30 Hz) flashing light, the EEG typically shows
a decrease in the amplitude of the resting rhythm and a
driving of the brain waves at the frequency of the flashes (521 .
We hypothesized 'that if we stimulated one subject in this
manner (a putative sender), the EEG of another subject in a
remote room with no flash present (a receiver) might show
changes in aJplu (9-11 Hz) activity and possibly an EEG
driving similar to that of the sender, or other coupling to the
sender's EEG [53). The receiver was seated in a visuaUy
opaque, acousticaUy and electricaUy shielded, double-waUed
steeL room about 7 m from the sender. The details of the
experiment, consisting of seven runs of thirty-six I o~ trials
each (twelve periods each for OHz, 6-Hz, and l6-Hz stimuli,
randomly intermixed), are presented in [41 . This experiment
proved to be successful. The receiver 's alpha activity (9-11 Hz)
showed a Significant reduction .in average power (-24 percent ,
p < 0.04) and peak power (-28 pe<cent, p < 0.03) during
16-Hz flash stimuli as compared with periods of no-nash
stimulus. (A similar response was observed for 6-Hz stimuli
(-12 percent in average power, -21 percent in peak power) ,
but the latter result did not reach statistical significance . ]
Fig. 2 shows an overlay of three averaged EEG spectra from
one of the subject's 36 trial runs, displaying differences in
alpha activity dwing the three stimulus conditions . Extensive
control proqedures were undertaken to detennine if these

o
.... 6
16

"
<l;

>
...J

>
5 Hz

10 Hz

15 Hz

Fig . 2. Occipital G frequency spe c tra . 0-20 Hz . o f one subject (H .H.)

acting as receIVer shOwing amplitude changes in the 9-1 IH t band as a
(unctio n of strobe frequency . Three cases : 0 ', 6 -. and 16Hz nashes
(twelve trial averages).

results were produced by system artifacts, electromagnetic

pickup (EMf), or subtle cueing; the results were negative [4] .
As part of the experimental protOCOl, the subject was asked
to ind icate a consciOUS assessment for each trial (via telegraph
key) as to the nature of the stimulus; analysis showed these
guesses to be at chance. Thus arousal as evidenced by signifi
cant alpha blocking occurred only at the noncognitive level of
physiological response. Hellce the experiment provided direct
phYSiological (EEG) evidence of perception of remote stimuli
even in the absence of overt cognitive response.
Whereas in our experiments we used a remote light flash as a
stimulus, Tart [481 in his work used an electrical shock to
himself as sender, and Lloyd [491 Simply told the sender to
think:. of a red triangle each time a red warning tight was
illuminated within his view . Uoyd observed a consistent
evoked potential in his subjects; whereas in our experiments
and in Tart's, a reduction in amplitude and a desynchroniza
tion of alpha was Observed-an arousal response . (If a subject
is resting in an alpha-dominant condition and he is then
stimulated, for example in any direct manner, one will observe
a desynchronization and decrease in alpha power.) We con
sider that these combined results are evidence for the existence
of noncognitive awareness of remote happenings and that they
have a profound implication for paranormal research.
Ill. SRI INVESTIGATtONS OF REMOTE VIEWING

Experimentation in remote viewing began during studies

carried out to investigate the abilities of a New York artist,
Ingo Swann, when he expressed the opinion that the insights
gained during experiments at SRI had strengthened his ability
(verified in other research before he joined the SRI program)
to view remote locations (541 . To test Mr. Swann 's asser
tion , a pilot study was set up in wttich a series of targets from
around the globe were supplied by SRI personnel to the ex
perimenters on a double-blind. basis. Mr. Swann's apparent
ability to describe correctly details of buildings, roads,
bridges, and the like indicated that it may be possible for
a subject by meanS of mental imagery to access and describe
randomly chosen geographical sites located several miles
from the subject's position and demarcated by some appro
priate means . Therefore, we set up a research program to
test the remote-viewing hypothesis under rigidly controlled
scientific conditions .
In carrying out this program, we concentrated on what we
considered to be our principal responsibility - to resolve under
unambiguous conditions the basic issue of whether or not this

PUTHOFF AND TARG : PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

class of paranormal perception phenomenon exists. A t all

times , we and others responsible for the overall program took
measures to prevent se nsory leakage and subliminal cueing and
to prevent deception , whether intentional or unintentional.
To ensure evaluations independent of belief structures of both
experimenters and judges, all experiments were carried out
under a protocol, described below , in which target selection at
the beginning of experiments and blind judging of results at
the end of experiments were handled independently of the
researchers engaged in carrying ou t the experiments.
Six subjects, designated S I through S6, were chosen for the
study. Three were considered as gifted or experienced subjects
( S I through S3) , an d three were considered as learners (S4
through S 6), The a prion' dichotomy between gifted and
learners was based on the experienced group having been
successful in other studies conducted before this program
and the learners group being inex.perienced with regard to
paranormal experimentation .
The study consisted of a series of double~blind tests with
local targets in the San Francisco Bay Area so that several in
dependent judges could visit the sites to establish documeDta
tion . The protocol was to closet the subject with an experi
menter at SRI and at an agreed on time to obtain from the
subject a deSCrip tion of an undisclosed remote site being
visited by a target team . In each of the experiments, one of
the six program subjects served as remote~viewing subject,
and SRI experimenters served as a target demarcation team at
the remote location chosen in a doubLe-blind protocol as
follows .
In each experiment, SRI management randomly chose a
target location from a list of targets within a 3D-min driving
time from SRI; the target location selected was kept blind to
subject and experimenters. The target pool consisted of more
than 100 target locations chosen from a target-rich environ
ment. (Before the experimental series began , the Director of
the Informahon Science and Engineering Division , not other
wise associated with the experiment, established the set of lo
cations as the target pool which remained known only to him.
The target locations were printed on cards sealed in envelopes
and kept in the SRI Division office safe. They were available
only with the personal assistance of the Division Director who
issued a single random-number selected target card that con
stituted the traveling orders for that experiment.)
In detail: To begin the experiment. the subject was closeted
with an experimenter at SRI to wait 30 min before beginning
a narrative deSCription of tbe remote location. A second ex
perimenter then obtained from the Division Director a target
location from a set of traveling orders previously prepared and
randomized by the Director and kept under his control. The
target demarcation team, consisting of two to fow SRI experi
menters, then proceeded by automobile directly to the target
v.ithout any communication with th'e subject or experimenter
remaining behind. The experimenter remaining with the sub
ject at SRI was kept ignorant of both the particular target and
the target pool so as to eliminate the possibility of cueing
(overt or subliminal) and to allow him freedom in questioning
the subject to clarify his descriptions. The demarcation team
remained at the target site for an agreed-on I5-min period
foUowing the 30 min allotted for traveL4 During the observa

-Th e nnt subject (SL) was al10wed 30 min fOr his descriptions, but
it waS found that he fatigued and had uttle com m en t after the rust 1 S

min . The viewing tim e was therefore reduced to 15 min for subjects
52 through 56 .

3)5

tion period, the remote-viewing subject was asked to describe

his impressions of the target site into a tape recorder and to

make any drawings he thought appropriate . An infonnal com

parison was (hen made when the demarcation team rerurned,
and the subject was taken to the site to provide feedback .

A. Subject S1 : Ex perienced
To begin the series, Pat Price , a fonner California police com
missioner and city councilman, participated as a su bject in
In general, Price's ability to describe
nine experiments .
correctly buildings, docks, roads , gardens, and the like , indud
ing structural materials, color, ambience. and activity-often
in great detail - indicated the functioning of a remote per
ceptual ability . A Hoover Tower target, for example , was
recognized and named by name. Nonetheless, in general, the
descriptions contained inaccuracies as well as correct state
ments. A typical example is indicated by the subject's drawing
shown in Fig. 3 in which he correctly described a park-like
area co ntaining two pools of water: one rectangular, 60 by
89 ft (actual dimensions 7S by 100 ft) ; the other circular,
diameter 120 ft (actual diameter 110 ft) . He incorrectly indi
cated the function, however , as water filtration rather than
recreational swimming. (We often observe essentially correct
deSCriptions of basic elements and patterns coupled with in
complete or erroneous analysis of fUDction .) As can be seen
from his drawing, he also' included some elements, such as
the tanks shown in the upper right, that are not present at the
target site. We also note an apparent left-right reversal, often
observed in paranormal perception experiments.
To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the
remoteviewmg experiment, the experimental results were
subjected to independent judging on a blind basis by an SRI
research analyst not otherwise associated with the research .
The subject's response packets, which con tained the nine
typed unedited transcripts of the tape-recorded narratives
along with any associated drawings, were unlabeled and pre
sented in random order. While standing at each target loca
tion, visited in turn ~ the judge was required to blind rank order
the nine packets on a scale I to 9 (best to worst match). The
statistic of interest is the sum of ranks assjgned to the target
associated transcripts, lower values indicating better matches.
For nme targets, the sum of ranks could range from nine to
eighty-one . The probability that a gjven sum of ranks s or
less will occur by chance is gjven by [55 J

I Ls L

Pr ($ or less) = --;;
N

;=n 120

(-I)'

(n) (i -NI_ I

I)

where .s is obtained sum of ranks, N is number of assignable

ranks, n is number of occasions on which ranltings were made,
and , takes on values from zero to the least positive integer k
in (i - n)/n. (Table 1 is a table to enable easy application of
the above fonnula to those cases in which N = n.) The sum in
this case, which included seven direct hits out of the nine, was
16 ( see Table 11), a result significant at p = 2.9 X IO- s by
exact calculation.
In Experiments 3, 4, and 6 through 9, the subject was se
cured in a double-walled copperscreen Faraday cage. The
Faraday cage provides 120-dB attenuation for planewave
radi~ freq uen cy radiation over a range of 15 kHz to 1 GHz.
For magnetic fields, the attenuation is 68 dB at 15 kHz and
decreases to 3 dB at 60 Hz. The results of rank order judging
(Table II) indicate that the use of Faraday cage electrical

PROCEEDINGS O f THE IEEE. MA RCH 197 6

336

.LJ

I I

AVE .

~,

""0'.""
... ....f

-,

~~IC .....,~I

'
(b)

(0)

Fig. 3. Swimming pool complex as remo te-viewing target . ( a) City map of target location. (b) Drawing by Price (5 1) .

TABLE I

CRITICAL VALU ES Of SUMS Of RANKS FOR PU.FEIlENTIAL MATCH-r NG

HUllIb e( of

Assi gn. o l e
Rank s (M)

Pr oba b i lity ( one - tailed ) Chat t he Ind i c a t e d

O. 10

0.10

O. OS 0 . 04

0 .002

13

13

12

II

10

20

18

18

17

IS

27

" "
II

22

20

"
"

2'

22

"
" " " "
"
"

J6

J3

II

' S

"

18

"

"

II

"

10

IS

22

"

10

"

I NOle:

a,oos

12

0 .0 1

II

0.025

s~

))

"

61

JO

J9

' 8

J8

" "
" "

of Rank s o r Le ss Would Occ ur by Ch., nc .,

0, 00 1

0 . 0005

10-"

lO - ~

l O''''

1O- ~

12

12

II

"

IS

.13

II

21

20

17

I'

12

10

29

27

19

"

"

22

J6

17

"

J2

"

"
"
"
"
"

20

JO

II

17
22

11'Us tabJe applies: o nly to those special cases I1l which the number of OCcaSlO[JS o n which o bjects
are bema ranked (n) is equal to the number of assignable ranks (N ) . Each entry represents the largest
nwnber that is significa.ct at the indicated p-Ievel. Source: R. L Morris (55) .

shielding does not prevent high-quality descriptions from being

obtained.
As a backup judging procedure, a panel o f five additional
SRI scientists not otherwise associated with the research were
asked simply to blind match the unedited typed transcripts
( with associated drawings) generated by the remote viewer
against the nine target locatio ns which they independently
visited in tum. The transcripts were unlabeled and presented
in random order. A correct match co nsisted of a transcript
of a given date being matched to the target of that date. In
stead of the expected number of 1 match each per judge , the
number of correct matche s obtained by the five judges was 7,
6, 5, 3, and 3, respectively . Thus, rather than the exp ected
to tal number of 5 correct matche.s from the judges, 24 such
matches were obtained .

B. S ubje ct S4: Learner

This experiment was desjgned to be a replication o f our pre
vious experiment with Price, the first replicatio n attempted.
The subject for this experiment was Mrs. Hella Hammid , a
gifted professional pho tographer. She was selected for this
series on the basis of her successful performance as a per
cipient in the EEG experiment described earlier. Outside of
that interaction, she had no previous experience with apparent
paranormal fun ctioning.
At the time we began working with Mrs. Ham mid, she had
no strong fe elings about the likeWtood of her ability (0 suc
ceed in this task. This was in contrast to both lngo Swann
who had come to our laboratory fresh from a length y and
apparently successful series of experiments with Dr. Gertru de
Schmeidler at City College of New York [56) and Pat Price

PUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

ll '

PEDESTRIAN OVERPASS TARGET

CD

.<~~

Fig. 4 . S ubjec t Hammid (S4) drawing, described as "some kind of diagonal trough up in the air."

TABLE II
DISTRIBUTiON OF RA NKI NGS AsSI G NEO TO TRA NSCRIPTS

AsSOCIATED WITH EACH TARGET LOCATION FOR EXPERIEN CED

SUBJECT PRICE (5 I)

Ra .. k o f

IH . u .. c e
( km ,

rar gt [ !.-oc.t io n
..oove r To<o'e r,
'!:ar l ...d s
R ~ dlO

"~t

St~nfor d

.. r e

Pr ,, ~er" e ,

[" le ~ col'e ,

1'.10 Alto

PottOl. VaUer

Marina, Red"ood 0. t"j

I Dri ve 'n

~ .. l o

l .'

'-'

, .1

ch ea ter, Palo Alco

Art . .. nd ( ufu Pl& ... ,

..,
I t..

h l dge toll pl .;u a , Fre.mt

Park

..,

( .. ch ol l .:: Churc h, Pouol .. V&lle),

e. ,

S... l_lng pool .::c:a p l U ., hLo Alto

l. '

Tot.. 1

,=

01

ra .. k ,

A~,och[ed

Tr&n,cl"tp[

1
)

16

( p.2 . 9:<.10")

who felt that he used his remoteviewing ability in his every

day life .
In comparison with the latter two, many people are more
influenced by their environment and are reluctant und er
public scrutiny to attempt act ivities that are generally thought
to be impossible. Society often provides inhibition and nega
tive feedback to the individual who might otherwise have
explored his own nonreguiar perceptual ability. We all share
an historical tradition of "the st oning of prophets and the
burning of witches" and , in more modern times, the hospitaliza
tion of those who claim to perceive things that the majority do
not admit tQ seeing. Therefore, in addition to maintaining

scientific rigor , one of our primary tasks as researchers is to

provide an environment in which the subject feels safe to
explore the possibility of paranormal perception. With a new
subject, we also try to stress the nonuniqueness of the ability
because from our experience paranormal functioning appears
to be a latent ability that all subjects can articulate to some
degree .
Because of Mrs . Hammid's artistic background, she was ca
pable of drawing and describing visual images that she could
not identify in any cognitive or analytic sense , When the target
demarcation team went t o a target location which was a
pedestrian overpass, the subject said that she saw " a kind of
trough up in the air ," which she indicated in the upper part
of her drawing in Fig. 4 . She went on to explain, " If you
stand where they are standing you will see so mething like
this ," indicating the nested squares at the bottom of Fig. 4 .
As it turned out , a judge standing where she indicated would
have a view closely resembling what she had drawn, as can be
seen from th e accompanying photographs of the target loca
tion . It needs to be emphasized, however, that judges did not
have access to our photographs of the site, used here faT
illustrative purposes only. but rather they proceeded to each
of the target locations by list.
In another experiment, the subject described seeing "an
open bamlike structure with a pitched roof." She also saw
a " kind of slatted sid e to the structure making light and dark.
bars on the wall." Her drawing and a photograph of the
asso ciat ed bicycle shed target are sh o wn in Fig. 5 . (Subjects
are encouraged to make drawings of anything they visualize
and associate with the remote location because drawings they
make are in general more accurate than their verbal description.)
As in the original series with Price, the results of the nine

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE . MARCH 19'76

338

BICYCLE SHED TARGET

DETAIL OF BICYCLE SHED

,
Fig . S. Subject Ha.mmid (S4) response to bicycle shed targel de~c rlb ed as an o pen "barn -like building " with "sla ts
o n the sides" and a " pitched fOOr. "

TABLE III

DISTRIBUTION OF RANlttN GS AsSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS AsSOCt."TED

WITH EACH TARGET locATION FOR LEARNER SUBJECT HAMMID (54)

kink of

T.r!lt c

Dt ,c&nc e

LQ,. cion

Assoe I.ted
Tr.n, c rLDt

, ka'

Palo Alco

L9

Sea. Aud I tor t .... l1enlo 'uk

0 .2

I'W:thodL.C Church ,

~crry .o.

'arkln&

..,

round , Plio Alto

,'r's"

!'to.... t . 1n

'1"[ 1",,'[ 10;lil& '

"N

eo.. rt,..ird,

"cnle 'ark

Ilc)'ch. 'hc<l , !'tenlo pU'k

It. t L rr..ad

[[C .H i t

."

8 .l

brielle, Pw.lo 41to

0 .1

O. ,

l.J

.
''''''Pkln pa ech , He n lo , .,-it

l.l

,,.d trl& ... ov.rp- , Palo Alto

' .0

To t . l . . . of c.nk l

,
i

II

( p ",l.~ "l<r)

experiment series were submitted for independent judging on

a blind basis by an SRI research analyst not otherwise associ
ated with the research . While at each target loc ation, visited
in turn, the judge was required to blind rank order the nine
unedited typed manuscripts of the tape-recorded narratives,
along with any associated drawings generated by the remote
viewer, on a scale L to 9 (best to worst match) . The sum of
ranks assigned to the ta.r&et-associated transcripts in this case
was 13, a resu lt significant at p = 1.8 X 10- 6 by exact calcula
tion (see Table I and discussion), and included five direct hits
and four second ranks (Table Ill).

Again, as a backup judging procedure, a paneL of five addi

tional Judges not otherwise associated with the research
were asked simply to blind match the unedited typed tran
scripts a nd associated drawings generated by the remote viewer .
against {he nme target Locations which they independently
visited in tum . A correct mat ch consisted of a transcript of
a gJven Ja(~ being matched to the target of that date : (n
stead \)( the ex;pected number of I match each per judge ,
the numb~r of correct matches obtained by the five judges
was S. 3. 3. 2. and 2, respectively. Thus, rather than the e;l(
p~c(ed total number of 5 correct matches from the judges,
15 such match~s were obtained.

5U~ I t'CfS

52 and 53: Exp erienced

HaVlng com pIe ted a series of I B remote-viewing experiments,

9 ~ach with ex;perienced subject S 1 (Price) and learner S4

( Hammid) , additional replication e;l(periments. four with each
subject. were carried out with experienced subjects S 2 (Elgin)
and S3 (Swann) and learners S5 and S6. To pLace the judging
on a basis comparable to that used with S 1 and S4, the four
transcripts each of experienced subjects S 2 and S 3 were com
bined into a group of eight for rank order judging to be com
pared with the similariy com bined results of the learners
S5andS6 .
The series with S2 (E lgin, an SRI research analyst) provided
a further example of the dichotomy between verbal and draw
ing responses. (As with medical literature , case histories often
are more illuminating than the summary of results .) The ex
periment described here was the third conducted with this

PUTHOFf AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORM-ATlON TRANSfER

339

TARGET-TENNIS COURTS

fig. 6. Subject Elgin'(S2) drawings in response to tennis coun target.

subject. It was a demonstration experiment for a government

visitor who had heard of our work and wanted to evaluate our
experimental prot ocol.
In the laboratory, the subject , holding a bearing compass at
ann's length, began the experiment by indicating the direction
of the target demarcation team correctly to within So . (In all
four experiments with this subject, he has always been within
10 of the correct direction in this angular assessment.) The
subject then generated a IS-min tape-recorded description and
the drawings shown in Fig. 6.
In discussing the drawings , Elgin indicated that he was
uncertain as to the action, but had the impression that the
demarcation team was located at a museum (known to him)
in a particular park. In fact, the target was a tennis court lo
cated in that park about 90 m from the indicated museum.
Once again, we note the characteristic (discussed earlier) of a
resemblance between the target site and certain gestalt ele
ments of the subject's response, especially in regard to the
drawings, coupled with incomplete or erroneous analysis of
the significances. Nonetheless, when rank ordering transcripts
I through 8 at tbe site, the judge ranked this transcript as 2.
This ex~ple illustrates a continuing observation that most of
the correct infonnation related to us by subjects is of a non
analytic nature pertaining to shape, fonn, color, and material
rather than to function or name.
A second example from this group, generated by 53 (Swann),
indicates the level of proficiency that can be attained with
practice . In the two years since we first started working with
Swann, he has been studying the problem of separating the ex
ternal signal from the internal noise. In our most recent

experiments, he dictates two lists for us to record. One list

contains objects that he "sees," but does not think. are located
at the remote scene. A second list contains objects that he
thinks are at the scene. In our evaluation, he has made much
progress in this most essential ability to separate memory
and imagination from paranormal inputs. This is the key to
bringing the remote-viewing channel to fruition with regard to
its potential usefulness.
The quality of transcript that can be generated by this pro
cess is evident from the results of our most recent experiment
with Swann. The target location chosen by the usual double
blind protocol was the Palo Alto City Hall. Swann described a
tall building with vertical columns and "set in" windows . His
sketch, together with the photograph of the site, is shown in
Fig. 7. He said there was a fountain, "but I don't hear it. "
At the time the target team was at the City Hall during the
experiment, the fountain was not running. He also made an
effort to draw a replica of the designs in the pavement in front
of the building, and correctly indicated the number of trees
(four) in the sketch.
For the entire series of eight, four each from S2 and S3, the
numerical evaluation . based o n blind rank ordering of tran
scripts at each site was significant at p = 3.8 X 10-4 and in
cluded three direct hits and three second ranks for the target
associated transcripts (see Table IV).

D . Subjects 55 and S6: Learnerj

To complete the series, fOUI experiments each were carried
out with learner subjects S5 and 56, a man and woman on the
SRI professional staff. The results in this case, taken as a

TA8LEIV
DISTRIBUTION OF RANItINGS AssiGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS AssocIATED

WIlli EACH TAllGET LocAnoN FOR EUERIENCED SUBJECTS ELGI!" (S2)

AND SWANN (S3)

..

Target UlC:lt 1011

, ,

SAAT SU t 1;:>n (TUndt Sy . t _), Fn.ont

16. I

Dhunu
Sub

~ct

51

. Shl",ldlld

51

51

C;olf

Sl

Cl ty Hill,

Sl

IU n llture golf COUtl',

Sl

Kl o lk

eoun , Palo Alto

eouu~

H
)

..

, .0

Pal o Alto
M~nlo

;>Irk

Preaerve,

!
I

park, Menl o Park

'"
'IY linda Natuu

Sl

Stanford

brtdl~,

Palo IIIt o

"..... ,.

t"\_..

*'--

0.)

,. ,

....

"

,...

Ped u trlan OveIl>lss , Plio Alto

5 .0

!Wlltoad

t.l

S5

IHnd .. U I, 'arcola

#-.~-~-...I.

tr~stle

brldS e, Palo Alto

1,'1. 11 ey

..,

\Ih I te Plu", Sun!oni (2,

) .8

56

Airport, ,,10

",

56

J(1osk

56

6oltl"lov.u, Stlnfo.rd

S>, 56

_~f.iJ.

Loc4ltion

~t

T"

"

"

1 -.

"

Pa.rk,

~l to
!1~n lo

'ull

o .)
, .0

It.tnl< of
Auoellted
Tr'n~crl

,
,

,
,
,
,

<

~;"" ....J

Toul

~ ...

of r.Inll.

20

(.,=0.08, "S>

vious experience in remote viewing, began to describe a large

square with a fountain. Fo ur minutes into the experiment,
she recognized the location and correctly identified it by name
(see Fig. 8). (It should be noted that in the area from which
the target locations were drawn there are other fountains
as well , some of which were in the target p ool. ) As an ex
ample or the style of the narratives generated during remote
viewing with inexperienced subjects and of the part played by
the experimenter remaining with the subject in such a case,
we have mcluded the entire unedited text of this experiment
as Appendix B.

?
Fig. 7. Subject

TA8LE V
DISTRIB UTION OF R.A.NIUNGS AssiGNED TO TUNSCRIPTS AssOCIATED

WITH EACH TARGET locATION FOR LEARNEJ. SUBJECTS S5 AND S6

Sub l ec l

.. ~.

(.,,, ).8xlO)

Ohlanee

""..4~tlooa

~.

$c,~

~~J
,,-~~-

).0

Tota 1 I UD of la nll e

~~~ld"

Irlnltr~

,
,

o. ,

SRI, Henlo Plrk

T OOlll,

"

T~nnL.

!Wnll o f
I... 11K 11 t~d

S~J1Q

(S3) respon5oe

(0

C ity Hall target ,

group, did not differ significantly from chance. F or the series

of eight (judged as a group of seven since one target came up
twice, once for each subject ), the numerical evaluation based
on blind rank ordering of transcripts at each site was non
significant at p = 0.08, even though there were two direct hits
and two second ranks out of the seven (see Table V) .
One of the direct hits, which occurred with subject 56 in her
fi fst experiment , provides an example of the "first-time effect"
that has been rigorously explored and is well-known to experi
menters in the field [57]. The outbound experimenter
obtained, by random protocol from the pool, a target blind
to the experimenter with the subject, as is OUf standard pro
cedure, and proceeded to the loc ation. The subject, a mathe
matician in the comp uter science laboratory who had no pre

E. Normal and Paran ormal: Use of Unselected Subjects in

Remote Viewing
After more than a year of following the experimental pro
tocol described above and observing that even inexperienced
subjects generated re~ults better than expected, we initiated a
series of experiments to explore further whether individuals
other than putative "Psychics" can demonstrate the remote
viewing ability. To test this idea, we have a continuing pro
gram to carry out additional experiments of the outdoor type
with new subjects whom we have no a priori reason to believe
have paranormal perceptual ability. To date we have colle cted
data from five experiments with two individuals in this cate
gory : a man and a woman who were visiting government
scientists interested in observing our experimental prot ocols.
The motivation for these particular experiments was twofold.
First, the experiments provide data that indicate the level of
profiCiency that can be expected from unselected volunteers.

)41

PUTHOFF AND TARG : PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR lNFORMATION TRANSfER

( ,

i0

I ~~--

I
\

------

~~~/

r
I

Fig , 8. S ubject (S6) drawifta of White Plaza, Stanford University. Sub

ject drew what she called "curvy benches" and then announced cor
rectly that the place was 'White Plaza at Stanford."

Second, when an iDdividual observes a successful demonstra

tion experiment involving another person as subject, it inevi
tably occurs to him that perhaps chicanery is involved. We
have found the most effective way to settle this issue for the
observer is to have the individual himself act as a subject so as
to obtain personal experience against which our reported
results can be evaluated .
The first visitor (V 1) was invited to participate as a subject
in a three-experiment series. All three experiments contained
elements descriptive of the associated target locations; the
quality of response increased with practice. The third re
sponse is shown in Fig. 9 , where again the pattern elements in
the drawing appeared to be a closer match than the subject's
analytic interpretation of the target object as a cupola.

.-,

RESPONSES OF VISITING

SCIENTIST SUBJECT

Fig. 9. S ubject (V l) drawinl of merry ""oround target .

TECHNOLOGY SERIES

TYPEWRITER TARGET

__1. - . . .ot.

"1'"""

- ............" 1""'-

.. -"""- 1M 2,.-,. .
~

__ .. ,;.a. .

... '" I'- -- - (.O~

-m-

I\I

r iff
i

'

SUBJECT SWANN (S3) RESPONSE

SUBJECT HAMMID (S4) RESPONSE

Fill'. lO. Drswinll's of a typewriter target by two subjects.

The second visitor [V2J participated as a subject in two ex

perunents. In his first experiment, he generated one of the
higher signal-ta-noise results we ~ave observed. He began
his narrative, "There is a red A-frame "building and next to it
is a large yellow thing (a tree-Editor}. Now further left
there is another A-shape. It looks like a swing-set, but it is
pushed down in a gully so I can' t see the swings." [All cor
rect.] He then went on to describe a lock on the front door
that he said "looks like it's made of laminated steel. so it
must be a Master lock ." (Also correct . J
For the series of fIVe-three from the first subject and two
from the second-the numerical evaluation based on blind
rank ordering of the transcripts at each site was sig.n..ificant at
p = 0 .0 I 7 and included three direct hits and one second rank
for the target-associated transcripts. (See Table VI. )

TABLE VI
DISTRI8UTlON OF RANICINGS AssiGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS AssOCIATED WITH

EACH TARGET locATION FOR VISITOR SUBJECT5 VI AND V2

,,

DI 1IIt.nc.
So>

."

T""'Ret LoC.tlon

"
"

Brloae OY..... .t ........, I11nl 0 pul<

'I

lier t Y-llo - round , ,.. 10 Al t o

"
"

IoI lnd ..llt . POTto h

lIay h oo ~

Aso r tenl t

Nature Preserve , Palo Alt o

V.. ll...,.

...t-1n, pool, I'!<>uotdn vt lt"

ro t;t.L .um o f ....nl...

o. l
'-'

..,
l .'

' .1

lAnk of
u. oct.te<!
fran. c ... lpt
I

,
I
I

( p..O.O l7)

PUTHOFF AND TARG : PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

TARGET LOCATION: XEROX MACHINE

(TECHNOLOGY SERIES)

I~

343

TO ADD INTEREST TO TARGET

LOCATION EXPERIMENTER WITH
HIS HEAD BEING XEROXED

Fig. II . Drawings by three subjects (52. 53, and V3) for Xerox machine target. When asked to describe the square at upper len o( response on
the right, subjec1 (V3) said, "There was this predominant light source which might have been a window. and a working surface which might have
been the sill, or a working surface or desk." Earlier the subject had said, "I have the feeling that there is something silhou etted against the
window."

Observations with unselected subjects such as those de

scribed above indicate that remote viewing may be a latent and
widely distributed perceptual ability.
F. Technology Series: Short-Range Remote Viewing

Because remote viewing is a perceptual ability , we consid

ered it important to obtain data on its resolution capabilities.
To accomplish this , we turned to the use of indoor techno
logical targets.
Twelve experiments were carried out with five different su~
jeets, two of whom were visiting government scientists. They
were told that one of the experimenters would be sent by
random protocol to a laboratory within the SRI complex and
that he would interact with the equipment or apparatus at
that location. It was further explained that the experimenter
remaining with the subject was, as usual , kept ignorant of the
contents of the target pool to prevent cueing during question
ing. (Unknown to subjects, targets in the pool were used with
replacement; one of the goals of this particular experiment was
to obtain mult~ple responses to a given target to investigate
whether correlation of a number of subject responses would
provide enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio .) The su~
Ject was asked to describe the target both verbally (tape
recorded) and by means of drawings during a tirne-synchronized
IS-min interval in which the outboun d experimenter inter
acted in an appropriate manner with the equipment in the
target area.
In the twelve experiments, seven targets were used : a drill
press, Xerox machine, video terminal, chart recorder, four
state random number generator, machine shop . and type
writer. Three of these were used twice (drill press, video
terminal, and typewriter) and one (Xerox machine) came up
three times in our random selection procedure .

Comparisons of the targets and subject drawings for three of

the multiple-response cases (the typewriter, Xerox machine,
and video terminal) are shown in Figs. 10,11, and 12. As is
apparent from these illustrations alone, the experiments
provide circumstantial evidence for an information channel
of useful bit rate . This includes experiments in which visit
ing government scientists participated as subjects (Xerox
machine and video terminal) to observe the proto coL In
general, it appears that use of multiple--subject responses to a
single target provides better signal-t<rnoise ratio than target
,identification by a single individual. This conclusion is borne
out by the judging described below.
Given that in general the drawings constitute the most
accurate portion of a subject's description , in the first judging
procedure a judge was asked Simply to blind match only the
drawings (i.e. , without tape transcripts) to the targets. Multiple
subject responses to a given target were stapled together, and
thus seven subject-drawing response packets were to be
matched to the seven different targets for which drawings were
made. The judge did not have access to our photographs of
the target locations, used for illustration purposes only, but
rather proceeded to each of the target locations by list. While
standing at each target location , the judge was required to ra.n.k
order the seven subject-drawing resp onse packets (presented in
random order) on a scale 1 to 7 (best to worst match). For
seven targets , the sum of ranks could range from 7 to 49. The
sum in this case, which included I direct hit and 4 second
ranks out of the 7 (see Table VIl) was 18, a result significant
at p = 0.036.
In the second more detailed effort at evaluation, a visiting
scientist selected at random one of the 12 data packages (a
drill press experiment), sight unseen and submitted it for in
dependent analysis to an engineer with a request for an esti

PROCEEDING S Of THE IEEE, MARCH 1976

344

TARGET ,

VIDEO MONITOR FOR TEXT EDITING (TECHNOLOGY SERIES)

\,

--

@)

~ ------

'--(a)

(b)

Fig. 12. Drawing by twO subjec.ts of a video monitor urget . (a) Subject (S4) drawing of "box with lig ht com ing OUI of it. . painted flat black
and in the middle of the room . " ( b) Second subject (V2) saw a computer [erminal with rela y racks in the background.

TABLE VII

TABLE VIII
S UMMAIt'r' REMOn: VIEWIN G

DistRIBUTION OF RANI(I NGS AssiGNED TO S UBJECT

DRAWINGS A.$SOCIATfC WITH EACH TARGET Loc"nON

"ok
A... oc:

Targ et

Su bject

)h""b er of
Sub' eet

or

l ilt~d

Du... tng.

Io' lth

n~tur ;o l

tar gets

Sl (exp erlenced)

Sl.
52,

"'.
Sl

'"

". "
v2

pt,.~ ,

I( e r<nc mIIehln,.

Vlde o lermlnal
ClI.rt re co rda "

'"

'"Sl .

Of I II

"

S2 "nO SJ ( n pHienceo)

S' ( t e ilOtner)

,
2

R..t.ndOGl nl.lSher Itneriltor

l'W.eb1.Da .hop

l'ppntTlt.r

Toul

..- o( r &/ll. .

"

(p,.o,036)

mate as to what was being described. The .analyst , blind as to

the target and given only the subject's taped narrative and
drawing (Fig, 13 ), was able, from the subject 's description
alone, to correctly classify the target as a " mansized vertical
boring machine."

G. Summary of Remore Viewing Results

I) Discussion: The descriptions supplied by the subjects
in the experiments involving remote viewing of natural targets
or labo ratory apparatus, although containing inaccuracies,
were sufficiently accurate to pennit the judges to differentiate
among various targets to the degree indicated . A summa.ry

S5 .. nd

VL

'0'

SO (l ea r neu )

"

( lu rnu. /u isltDr ,)

p .V" l u e,

E "'D e ~l_nt'

OTo ~~

2. ,

,
,
,
,

J. ,

bnk
J uOglnl

1O-5

. .,.,
10

1. 8 ".( 10

0.06 ( SS)

0.0)1

Io'ith tlc hno l a&J t.tgetJ

". ".

S'.

". "

12

0.0)6

tabulation of the statistical evaluations of these fifty-<lne ex

periments with nine subjects is presented in Table V[II. The
overall result , evaluated '.conservatively on the basis of a
j udging procedure that ignores transcript quality beyond that
necessary to rank order the data packets (vastly underestimat
ing the statistical significance of individual de scriptions),
clearly indicates the presence of an information channel of
useful bit rate. Furthennore . it appears that the principal
differen ce between experienced subjects and inexperienced
volunteers is not {hat the lat te r never exhibit the faculty, but
rather that their results are simply less reliable , more sporadic.
Nevertheless, as described earlier, individual transcripts from
the inexp erienced grou p of subjects number among Some of
the best obtained. Such observations indicate a hypothesis
that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distribut ed
perceptual ability.

PUTHOFF AND TARG . PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

fig. 13. Subject (54) drawing of drill press showing belt drive, stool,
and a "venical graph that goes up and down."

Thus the primary achievement of the SRI program was the

elicitation of high...quality remote viewing from individuals
who agreed to act as subjects. Criticism of this claim could
in principle be put forward on the basis of three potential
flaws. I) The study could involve naivete in protocol that
penn its various forms of cueing, intentional or unintentiona1.
2) The experiments discussed could be selected out of a larger
pool of experiments of which mal!y are of poorer qUality.
3) Data for the reported experiments could be ed~ted to show
only the matching elements, the nonmatching elements being
discarded.
All three criticisms, however, are invalid. First, with regard
to cueing, the use of double-blind protocols ensures that none
of the persons in contact with the subject can be aware of the
target. Second, selection of experiments for reporting did not
take place; every experiment was entered as performed on a
master log and is included in the statistical evaluations. Third,
data associated with a given experiment remain unedited~ all
experiments are tape recorded and all data are included un
edited in the data package to be judged and evaluated.

In the process of judging-attempting to match transcripts

against targets on the basis of the information in the
transcripts-some patterns and regularities in the transcript
descriptions became evident, particularly regarding individual
styles in remote viewing and in the perceptual form of the
descriptions given by the subjects. These patterns and the
judging procedure are discussed below.
a) Styles of response: The fifty-one transcnpts were
taken from nine different subjects. Comparing the tran
scripts of one subject with those of another revealed that each
pattern tended to focus on certain aspects of the remote
target complex and to exclude others, so that each had an
individual pattern of response , like a signature.
5ubject 53 . for exampie , frequently responded with topo
graphical descriptions , maps, and architectural features of the
target locations. Subject S2 often focused on the behavior of
the remote experime.nter or the sequence of actions he carried
out at the target . The transcripts of subject S4, more than
those of other subjects, had descriptions of the feel of the lo
cation, and experiential or sensory gestalts-for example,
light/dark elements in the scene and indoor/outdoor and
enclosed/open distinctions. Prominent features of S I 's tran
scripts were detailed descriptions of what the target persons
were concretely experiencing, seeing, or doing-for example,
standing on asphalty black top overlooking water; looking at
a purple iris .
The range of any individual ~ubject's responses was wide.
Anyone might draw a map or describe the mood of the remote
experimenter, but the consistency of each subject 's overall
approach suggests that just as individual descriptions of a
directly viewed scene would differ, so these differences also
occur in remote-viewing processes.
b ) Nature of the description: The concrete descriptions
that appear most commonly in transcripts are at the level of
subunits of the overall scene. For example, when the target
was a Xerox copy machine, the responses included (S2) a
rolling object (the moving light) or dials and a cover that is
lifted (53), but the machine as a whole was not identified by
name Or function.
In a few transcripts, the subjects correctly identified and
named the target. In the case of a computer tenninal , the
subject (V2 ) apparently perceived the terminal and the relay
racks behind it. In the case of targets which were Hoover
Tower and White Plaza , the subjects (S I and 56 , respectively)
seemed to identify the locations thIough analysis of their
initIal images of the elements of the target.
There were also occasional incorrect identifications. Gestalts
wue incorrectly named; for example, swimming pools in a
park were identified as water storage tanks at a water filtration
plant (SI).
The most common perceptual level was thus an intermediate
one-the individual elements and items that make up the tar
get. This is suggestive of a scanning process that takes sample
perceptions from within the overall environment.
When the subjects tried to make sense out of these fragmen
tary impressions, they often resorted to metaphors or con
structed an image with a kind of perceptual inference, From
a feeling of the target as an "august" and "solemn" building,
a subject (S4) said it might be a library~ it was a churcb . A
pedestrian overpass above a freeway was described as a conduit
(S4). A rapid transit station, elevated above the countryside,
was associated with an observatory (S2). These responses
seem to be the result of attempts to process partial informa

tion : similarly , this occurs in other parapsychological experi

ments. These observations are compatible with the hypotheses
that information received in a putative remoteviewing mode
is processed piecemeal in pattern form (consistent with a low
bit rate process, but not necessarily requiring it); and the
errors arise in the processes of attempted integration of the
data into larger patterns directed toward verbal labeling.
When the subjects augmented the verbal transcripts with
drawings or sketches, these often expressed the target elements
more accurately than the verbal desc riptions . Thus the draw.
ings tended to correspond to the targets more clearly and
precisely than the words of the transcript.
The descriptions given by the subjects sometimes went be
yond what the remote experimenter experienced, at least con
sciously. For example, one subject (S4) described and drew
a belt drive at the top of a drill press that was invisible even to
the remote experimenter who was operating the machine ;
another subject (S 1) described a number of items behind
shrubbery and thus not visible to members of the demarcation
team at the site.
Curiously , objects in motion at the remote site were rarely
mentioned in the transcript. For example , trains crossing the
railroad trestle target were not described, though the remote
experimen ter stood very close to them.
Also in a few cases , the subject descriptions were inaccurate
regarding size of structures. A 20-ft courtyard separating two
buildings was described as 200 ft wide, and a small shed was
expanded to a barnlike structure .
c) Blind judging of transcripts: The judging procedure
entailed examining the transcripts for a given experimental
series and attempting to match the transcripts with the cor
rect targets on the basis of their correspondences. The tran
scripts varied from coherent and accurate descriptions to mi~>
tures of correspondences and noncorrespondences. Since the
Judge did not know a prior; which elements of the descriptions
were conect or incorrect, the task was complicated, and tran
scripts often seemed plausibly to match more than one target.
A confounding factor in these studies is that some target 10-
cations have similarities .that seem alike at some level of per
ception. For example, a radio telescope at the top of a hill,
the observation deck of a tower, and a jetty on the edge of a
bay all match a transcript description of "looking out over a
long distance ." A lake, a fountain, and a creek may all result
in an image of water for the subject. Therefore, in several
cases, even correct images may not help in the conservative
differential matching procedure used .
According to the judge, the most su ccessful procedure was a
careful elementbyelement comparisoa that tested each tran
script against every t;;u-get and used the transcript descriptions
and drawings as arguments for or against assigning the tran
script to a particular target. In most cases, this resulted iD
either a clear conclusion or at least a ranking of probable
matches; these matches were subjected to the statistical
analyses presented in this paper.
2) Su.mmary: In summary, we do not yet have an under
standing of the nature of the information-bt:aring signal that a
subject perceives during remote viewing. The subje'cts corrr
monly report that they perceive the signal visually as though.
they were looking at the object or place from a position in its
immediate neighborhood.
Furthermore, the subjects' per
ceptual viewpoint has mobility in that they can shift their
point of view so as to describe elements of a scene that would

not be visible to an observer merely standing at ground level

and describing what he sees. (In particular, a subject often
correctly describes elements not visible to the target demarca~
tion team.)
Finally, motion is seldom reported ; in fact ,
moving objects often are unseen even when nearby sta tIC
objects are correctly identified.
A comparison of the results of remote viewing (a so--called
freeresponse task) with result s of forced choice tasks, su ch as
the selection of one of four choices generated by a random
number generator (5 8J, reveals the following findings. From a
statistical viewpoint , a subject is more lik el y to describe, with
sufficient accuracy to permit blind matching, a remote site
chosen at random than he is to select correctly one of four
random numbers. Our experience with these phenomena leads
us to consider that this difference in task performance may
stem from fundamental signaHo-noise considerations. Two
principal sources of noise in the system apparently are mem
ory and imagination, both of which can give rise to mental
pictures of greater clarity than the target to be perceived. In
the random number task, a subject can create a perfect mental
picture of each of the four possible outputs in his own imagi
nation and then attempt to obtain the correct answer by a
mental matching operation. The same is true for card guessing
experiments. On the other hand, the subject in remote view
ing is apparently more likely to approach the task with a
blank mind as he attempts to perceive pictorial infonnation
from remote locations ab'out which he may have nO stored
mental data.
Finally, we observe that most of the correct infonnation
that subjects relate to us is of a nonanalytic nature pertaining
to shape, fonn , color, and material rather than to function or
name. In consultation with Dr. Robe rt Ornstein of the Langley
Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute , San Francisco, CA, and with
Dr. Ralph Kiernan of the Department of Neurology . Stanford
University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, we have formed
the tentative hypothe sis that paranormal functioning may
involve specialization characteristic o f the brain's right hemi
sphere . This possibility is derived from a variety of evidence
from clinical and neurosurgical sources which indicate that the
two hemispheres of the hUman braiD are specia.liz.ed for dif
ferent cognitive functions. The left hemisphere is predomi
nantly active in verbal and other analytical functioning and the
right hemisphere predominates in spatial and other holistic
processing [59}, [60} . Further research is necessary to
elucidate the relationship between right hemisphere function
and paranonnal abilities. Nonetheless, we can say at this
point that the remote-viewing results of the group of subjects
at SRI have characteristics in common with more familiar
performances that require right hemispheric function. The
similarities include the highly schematicized drawings of ob
jects in a room or of remote scenes . Verbal identification of
these drawings is often highly inaccurate and the drawings
themselves are frequently left-right reversed relative to the
Further, written material generally is
target configuration.
not cognized. These characteristics have been seen in left
brain-injured patients and in callosalsectioned patients.
As a result of the above considerations, we have learned to
urge our subjects simply to describe what they see as opposed
to what they think they are looking at. We have learned that
their unanalyzed perceptions are almost always a better guide
to the true target than their interpretations of the perceived
data.

PUTHOFF AND TARG : PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

the corresponding target locations. A long-range experimental

program devoted to the clarification of these issues and involv
ing a number of subjects is under way. The above four experi
ments are the first four carried out under this program.
Currently, we have no precise model of this spatial and tem
poral remote-viewing phenomenon. However, models of the
universe involving higher order synchronicity or correlation
have been proposed by the physicist Pauli and the psychologist
Carl lung [621.
ACAUSALlTY . If natural laws were an absolute uuth, then of
course there could not possibly be any processes that deviate
from it. But since causalitys is a statigiCtJl truth, it holds good
only on average and thus leaves room for exceptions which must
somehow be experienceable, that is to say, real. I trY to regard
synchronistic events as acausal exceptions of this kind. They
prove to be relatively independent of space and time; they rela
tivize space and time insofar as space presents in principle no ob
stacle to their passage and the sequence of e\'ents in time is in
verted so that it looks as if an event which has not yet occurred
were causing a perception in the present.

We shall see in the next section that such a description,

though poetic, has some basis in modern physical theory,
V. DISCUSSION

It is important to note at the outset that many contempo

rary physicists are of the view that the phenomena that we
have been discussing ue not at all inconsistent with the
framework of physics as currently understood . In this emerg
ing view, the often-held belief that observations of this type
are incompatible with known laws in principle is erroneous,
such a concept being based on the naive realism prevalent
before the development of modern quantum theory and
infonnation theory.
One hypothesis , put forward by I . M. Kogan of the USSR,
is that information transfer under conditions of sensory
shielding is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF)
electromagnetic waves in the 300-1000-km region (37]
[40] . Experimental support for the hypothesis is claimed
on the basis of slower than inverse square attenuation, com
patible with source-percipient distances lying in the induc
tion field range as opposed to the radiation field range; ob
served low bit rates (O.OOS...().I bit/s) compatible with the
infonnation carrying capacity of ELF waves; apparent ineffec
tiveness of ordinary electromagnetic shielding as an attenuator;
and standard antenna calculations entailing biologically gener
ated currents yielding results compatible with observed signal
to-noise ratios.
M. Persinger, Psychophysiology Laboratory, Laurentian Uni
versity, Toronto, Canada, has narrowed the ELF hypothesis to
the suggestion that the 7.8-Hz "Shumann waves" and their
harmonics propagating along the earth-ionosphere waveguide
duct may be responsible. Such an hypothesis is compatible
with driving by brain-wave currents aIld leads to certain other
hypotheses such as asymmetry between east-west and west
east propagation, preferred experimental times (midnight-4
A.M.), and expected negative correlation between success
and the. U index (a measure of geomagnetic disturbance
throughout the world). Persinger claims initial support for
these factors on the basis of a literature search [63], [641.
On the negative side with regard to a straightforward ELF
interpretation as a blanket hypothesis are the following: a) a~
J

Ali

usually understood.

349

parent real-time des criptions of remote activities in sufficient

detail to require a channel capacity in all probability greater
than that allowed by a conventional modulation of an ELF
signal; b) lack of a proposed mechanism for coding and decod
ing the infonnation onto the proposed ELF' carrier; and c) a~
parent precognition data . The hypothesis must nonetheless re
main open at this stage of research, since it is conceivable that
counterindication a) may eventually be circumvented on the
basis that the apparent high bit rate reswts from a mixtwe of
low bit rate input and high bit rate "filling in the blanks" from
imagination ; counterindication b) is common to a number of
normal perceptual tasks and may therefore simply reflect a
lack of sophistication on ow part with regard to perceptual
fUllctioning [65]; and counterindication c) may be accom
modated by an ELF hypothesis if advanced waves as well as
retarded waves ue admitted [66J, [671. Experimentation to
determine whether the ELF hypothesis is viable can be carried
out by the use of ELF sowces as tugets, by the study of para
metric dependence on propagational directions and diwnal
timing, and by the exploration of interference effects caused
by creation of a high-intensity ELF environment during ex
perimentation, all of which are under consideration in our lab
oratory and elsewhere.
Some physicists believe that the reconciliation of observed
paranormal functioning with modern theory may take place at
a more fundamental level-namely, at the level of the founda
tions of quantum theory. There is a continuing dialog, for
example, On the proper interpretation of the effect of all ob
server (consciousness) on experimental measurement [68J,
and there is considerable current interest in the implications
for our notions of ordering in time and space brought on by
the observation [69], [701 of nonlocal correlation or "quan
tum interconnectedness" (to use Bobm's term {71 J) of distant
parts of quantum systems of macroscopic dimensions. The
latter, Bell's theorem [721, emphasizes that "no theory of
reality compatible with quantum theory can require spatially
sepuated events to be independent" (131 , but must permit
interconnectedness of distant events in a manner that is con
trary to ordinary experience (741-(751. This prediction has
been experimentally tested and confmned in the recent
experiments of, for example, Freedman and Oauser [6"91 ,
[701 .
E. H. Walker and O. Costa de Beawegard, independently
proposing theories of paranormal functioning based on quan
tum concepts, argue that observer effects open the door to the
possibility of nontrivial coupling between consciousness and
the environment and that the nonlocality principle pennits
such coupling to transcend spatial and temporal barriers (76J,
[771.
Apparent "time reversibility"-that is, effects (e.g. , observa
tions) apparently preceding causes (e.g., events)-though con
ceptually difficult at fIrSt glance, may be the easiest of appar
ent paranonnal phenomena to assimilate within the current
theoretical structure of our world view. In addition to the
familiu retarded potential solutions f(t - ric ), it is well known
that the equations of, for example, the electromagnetic field
admit of advanced potential solutionsf(t + rle)-solutions that
would appear to imply a reversal of cause and effect. Such
solutions are conventionally discarded as not corTesponding to
any observable physical event. One is cautioned, however, by
statements such as that of Stratton in his basic text on electro
magnetic theory [781.

350

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. MARCH 1976

The reader has doubtless noted that the choice of the function
[(t - ric) is highly arbitrary, since the field equation admits also
a solu ticn f(t + TIc). This function leads obviously to an advanced

time, implying that the field can be observed before it has been
generated by the source. The familiar chain of cause and effect
is thus reversed and this alternative solution might be discarded
as logically inconceivable. However, the application of "logical"
causality principles offers very insecure footing in matters such
as these and we shall do better to restrict the theory to rewded
action solely on the grounds that this solution alone conroons to
the present physical data.

Such caution is justified by the example in the early 1920's of

Dirac's development of the mathematical description of the
relativistic electron that also yielded a pair of solutions, one of
which was discarded as inapplicable until the discovery of the
positron in 1932 .
In an analysis by O. Costa de Beauregard, an argument is put
forward that advanced potentials constitute a convergence
toward "finality" in a manner symmetrical to the divergence
of retarded potentials as a result of causality {77) . Such
phenomena are generally unobservable , however. on the gross
macroscopic scale for statistical reasons. This is codified in
the thermodynamic concept that for an isolated system entropy
(disorder) on the average increases. It is just this requirement
of isolation, however, that has been weakened by the observer
problem in quantum theory, and O. Costa de Beauregard argues
that the finality principle is maximally operative in just those
situations where the intrusion of consciousness as an ordering
phenomenon results in a significant local reversal of entropy
increase. At this point, further discussion of the subtleties of
such considerations, though apropos, would take us far afield,
so we simply note that such advanced waves, jf detected, could
in certain cases constitute a carri~r of infonnation precognitive
to the even t.
The above arguments are not intended to indicate that the
precise nature of the information channel coupling remote
events and human perception is understood. Rather, we in
tend to show only that modem theory is not without resources
that can he brought to bear on the problems at hand, and we
expect that these problems will, with further work, continue
to yieJd to analysis and specification.
Furthermore , independent of the mechanisms that may be
involved in remote sensing, observation of the phenomenon
implies the existence of an infonnation channel in the
infonnation-theoretic sense. Since such channels are amenable
to analysis on the basis of communication theory techniques,
as indicated earlier, channel characteristics such as bit rate can
be detennined independent of a well-defmed physical channel
model in the sense that thennodynamic concepts can be ap
plied to the analysis of systems independent of underlying
mechanisms. Furthermore, as we have seen from the work of
Ryzl discussed in Section II, it is possible to use such a channel
for errorfree transmission ofinfonnation if redundancy coding
is used. (See also Appendix A.) Therefore, experimentation
involving the collection of data under specified conditions per
mits headway to be made despite the fonnidable work that
needs to be done to clariCy the underlying bases of the
phenomena.
VI. CONCLUSION

For the past three years we have had a program in the Elec
tronics and Bioengineering Laboratory oC SRI to investigate
those facets of human perception that appear to fall outside
the range of wellunderstood perceptual or processing capa-

bihties. The primary achievement of this program has been

the elicitation of high-<iuality "remote viewing"-the ability
of both experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers
to view, by means of innate mental processes, remote geer
graphical or technical targets such as roads, buildings , and
laboratory apparatus. Our accumulated data from over fifty
experiments with more than a half-dozen subjects indicate
the following. a) The phenomenon is not a sensitive function
of distance over a range of several kilometers. b) Faraday cage
shielding does not appear to degrade the quality or accuracy of
perception. c) Most of the correct information that subjects
relate is of a nonanalytic nature pertaining to shape, form,
color, and material rather than to function or name. (This
aspect suggests a hypothesis that information transmission
under conditions of sensory shielding may be mediated pri
marily by the brain 's right hemisphere.) d) The principal
difference between experienced subjects and inexperienced
volunteers is not that the latter never exhibit the faculty, but
rather that their results are simply less reliable. (This observa
tion suggests the hypothesis that remote viewing may be a
latent and widely distributed, though repressed , perceptual
ability .)
Although the precise nature of the infonnation channel cou
pling remote events and hUman perception is not yet under
stood, certain concepts in infonnation theory, quantum
theory, and neurophysiolo~ca.l research appear to bear directly
on the issue. As a result, the working assumption among re
searchers in the field is that the phenomenon of interest is
consistent with modem scientific thought , and can therefore
be expected to yield to the scientific method. Further, it is
recognized that communication theory provides powerful
techniques, such as the use of redundancy coding to improve
signal-to-noise ratio , which can be employed to pursue special
purpose application of the remote-sensing channel independent
of an understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We there
fore consider it important to continue data coUection and to
encourage others to do likewise ; investigatiOns such as those
reported here need replication and extension under as wide a
variety of rigorous.ly controlled conditions as possible.
APPENDIX A
SIGNAL ENHANCEMENT IN A PARANORMAL
COMMUNICATION CHANNEL BY APPLICATION
OF REDUNDANCY CODING

Independent of the mechanisms that may be involved in

remote sensing, observation of the phenomenon implies the
existence of an infonnation channel in the information
theoretic sense. As we have seen from the work of Ryzl dis
cussed in Section 11 ,6 it is even possible to use such a (noisy)
channel for error-free transmission of information if suf
ficienI redundancy coding is used [30), [31). Following is a
general procedure that we have used successfully for signal
enhancement.
We shall assume that the "message" consists of a stream of
binary digits (0,1) of equal probability (e.g., binary sort of
green / white cards as in Ryz.!'s case, English text encoded as in
Table X and sent long distance by strobe light on/off, and so
on). To combat channel noise , each binary digit to be sent
through the channel requires the addition of redundancy bits
(coding). Efficient coding requires a compromise between the
desire to maximize rew.bility and the desire to minimize re
See also the nate added in proof an the successful work dane by
:arpenter.

PUTHOff AND TARO: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL fOR INfORMATION TRANSfER

TABLE IX

IV. CONSIDERA nONS CONCERNING TIME

If the authors may be forgiven a personal note , we wish to

express that this section deals with observations that we have
been reluctant to publish because of their striking apparent in
compatibility with existing concepts. The motivating factor
for presenting the data at this time is the ethical consideration
that theorists endeavoring to develop models for paranormal
functioning should be apprised of all the observable data if
their efforts to arrive at a comprehensive and correct descrip
tion are t<!> be successful,
During the course of the experimentation in remote viewing
(Section 1I1), subjects occasionally volunteered the informa
tion that they had been thinking about their forthcoming par
ticipation in a remote-viewing experiment and had an image
come to them as to what the target location was to be, On
these occasions, the information was given only to the experi
menter remaining at SRI with the subject and was unknown to
the outbound experimenter until completion of the experi
ment. Two of these contributions were among the most
accurate descriptions turned in during those experiments.
Since the target location had not yet been selected when the
subject communicated his perceptions about the target. we
found the data difficult to contend with.
We offer these spontaneous occurrences not as proof of pre
cognitive perception, but rather as the motivation that led us
to do further work in this field. On the basis of this firnthand
evidence, together with the copious literature describing years
of precognition experiments carried out in various other labcr
ratories , we decided to determine whether a subject could per
form a perceptual task that required both spatial and temporal
remote viewing.
It is well known and recently has been widely discussed that
nothing in the fundamental laws of physics forbids the appar
ent transmission of information from the future to the present
(discussed further in Section V). Furthermore, there is a gen
eral dictum that Hin physical law, everything that is not forbid
den , is required" [61) , With this in mind, we set out to con
duct very well-controlled experiments to determine whether
we could deliberately design and execute experiments for the
sole purpose of observing precognition under laboratory
conditions.
The experimental proto col was identical to that followed in
previous remoteviewing experiments with but one exception.
The exception was that the subject was required to describe
the remote location dwing a IS-min period beginning 20 min
before the target was selected CLDd 35 min before the outbound
experimenter was to arrift at the target location.
In detail, as shown in Table IX, each day at ten o'clock one
of the experimenters would leave SRI with a stack of ten
sealed envelopes from a larger pool and randomized daily, con
taining traveling instructions that had been prepared. but that
were unknown to the two experimenters remaining with the
subject. The subject for this experiment was Hella Hammid
(S4) who participated in the nine-experiment series replicating
the original Price work described earlier. The traveling experi
menter was to drive continuously from 10:00 u.ntil 10:30 be
fore selecting his destination with a random number generator.
(The motivation for continuous motion was our observation
that objects and persons in rapid motion are not generally seen
in the remote-viewing mode of perception, and we wished the
traveler to be a poor target u.ntil he reached his target site.) At
the end of 30 min of driving, the traveling experimenter gener-

,4 7

EXPERIMENTAL PaOTOCOL : PUCOG:"ITIVE REMOTE VJEWI~G

n~

Ewpu i ..en [ ..-/Sub j e c t " c t l vl

Schedule

:~

10 ,00

Outboun6 ewper1"',,"tlr te ave ~ ...it" to Inv .. l ope~ ( co"[l t".1"6

[;)rg'H l ocatic n ~) ,od .... nOOll II_be .. ,ene rator ;
bigl nt h.Uhouf driv e

10: 10

:!:,,:plrl_n[ ~r,

10:

"

:0 JO

h~

"''' ..

,,

Subject re~po n se c ... ptcte6. at Vhlch

over
of u:p .. rJ.men t

,"

..

"

laberatory p .rt

f .. _
r . nc!oe
Cu r b"".,c! eJlP~rt ...n["f obnlnt rlnc!... n. .ber
nuaber ,enerator , c o un[~
anoel. totc! eoye Lop...
tar,.t loeario", lndl c ued
?I"<"ttd"

'"

10, 1. 5

'0

ro;'<... l n 1 nll w1th ... b Jec t

laborat ory
'ubjec t I dcrlpnon of ...here outbound
IwpedlDl!lIter
fro. 10 ; 4511:00

.. ltd r

O... t ~ound .x p.rl.... nrtr r ftUln,

15 Gllnuttl (I O, 4) LI : 00)

'0'

"

"

tar,tt toc.t1on

'"'

fig, 14, Subject Hammid (S4) described "some k.ind of congealing [ar,
or maybe an area of condensed lava .. . that has oozed out to fill up
some kind of boundaries."

ated a random digit from

to 9 with a Texas Instruments
SR-5 I random number generator; while still in motion , he
counted down that number of envelopes and proceeded di
rectly to the target location so as to arrive there by 10 :45. He
remained at the target site until 11 :00, at which time he re
turned to the Laboratory , showed his chosen target name to a
security guard . and entered the experimental room.
During the same period, the protocol in the laboratory was
as follows. At 10 : 10, the subject was asked to begin a descrip
tion of the place to which the experimenter would go 35 min
hence. The subject then generated a tape-recorded description
and associated drawings from 10: 10 to 10:2 5, at which time
her part in the experiment was ended. Her description was
thus entirely cO!lcluded 5 min before the beginning of the tar
get selection procedure.
Four such experiments were carried out. Each of them ap
peared to be successful, an evaluation later verified in blind
judging without error by three judges. We will briefly sum
marize the four experiments below.
The first target, the Palo Alto Yacht Harbor, consisted en
tirely of mud flats because of an extremely low tide (see Fig,
14). Appropriately, the entire transcript of the subject per
tained to "some kind of congealing tar , or maybe an area of
condensed lava. It looks Like the whole area is covered with
some kind of wri.n.k1ed elephant skin that has oozed out to fill
up some kind of boundaries where (the outbound e:ltperi
menter ) is standing." Because of the lack of water, the dock
where the remote experimenter was standing was in fact rest
ing directly on the mud.

Fig . 16. Subject (S4) saw a "black iron triangle that Hal had somehow
walked into" and heard a "squeak, squeak , about once a second ."

Fig. 17 . Subject (S4) described a very tall structure located among city
streets and covered with "Tiffany-like glass."
Fig. I S. Subject (S4) described a formal garden "very well manicured"
behind a double colonnade.

Note that the subject has learned not to rush into interpreta
tion as to the nature or purpose of the place. This is a result
of our cautioning based on the observation that such efforts
tend to be purely analytical and in our experience are almost
invariably incorrect. If a subject can limit himself to what he
sees, he is often then able to describe a scene with sufficient
accuracy that an observer can perform the analysis for him and
identify the place.
The second target visited was the fountain at one end of a
large formal garden at Stanford University Hospital (Fig. 15).
The subject gave a lengthy description of a formal garden be
hind a wall with a "double colonnade" and ''very well mani
cured." When we later took the subject to the location, she
was herself taken aback to find the double colonnaded wall
leading into the garden just as described.
The third target was a children's swing at a small park 4.6 km
from the laboratory (Fig. 16). The subject repeated again and
again that the main focus of attention at the site was a " black
iron triangle that the outbound experimenter had somehow
walked into or was standing on." The triangle was "bigger
than a man," and she heard a "squeak, squeak , about once a
second," which we observe is a match to the black metal swing
that did squeak.

The final target was the Palo Alto City Hall (Fig. 17) . The
subj ect described a very, very tall structure covered with
"Tiffany-like glass." She had it located among city streets and
with little cubes at the base. The building is gla.ss-cove red , and
the little cubes are a good mat ch to the small elevator exit
buildings located in the plaza in front of the building_
To oblain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the pre
cognitive Yle wing , the experimental results were subjected to
inde~ndent judging on a blind basis by three SRI scientists
who were nOl otherwise associated with the experiment. The
Judges were asked to match the four locations, which they
visIted . apmst the unedited typed manuscripts of the tape
recorded narratives , along with the drawings generated by the
remote viewer. The transcripts were presented unlabeled and
in random order and were to be used without replacement- A
correct match required that the transcript of a given experi
ment be matched with the target of that experiment. All three
judges independently matched the target data to the response
data without error. Under the null hypothesis (no information
channel and a random selection of descriptions without re
placement), each judge independently obtained a result signifi
cant at p =(4')-' = 0.042 .
For reasons we do not as yet understand, the four transcripts
generated in the precognition experiment show exceptional co
herence and accuracy as evidenced by the fact that all of the
judges were able to match successfully all of the transcripts to

PUTHOFF ANO TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

35 '

TABLE X
5~81T CODE FOR ALPHANUMERIC

CHARACTERS
E

00000

01000

lllll
OOOOL
11llO

G.J

lOlll
OlOOL
10110
010\0
10LOl
01011
10100
01100
10011
allOt
10010
Oll10
10001
01111
10000

I
0
A

oooLO

S,X ,Z

11100
00100
Hall
00101
HOLD
00110
11001
00111
11000

D
H
L

C,K, Q
F

P
U

1 t 101
OOOll

.,

,
,
V

,
3

5
6
7

"Note: Alphabet characters tisted

DECISION 1
Accept "1" as
the Bit Being
TranSIT\lH ed

'0
0

A. Sinkov [79[ :

(Th<

low-fre

dundancy. One efficient coding scheme for such a channel is

obtained by application of a sequential sampling procedure of
the type used in production-line quality control [80) . The
adaptation of such a procedure to paranonnal communication
channels, which we now discuss, was considered flTSt by
Taetzsch (81J. The sequential method gives a rule of proce
dure for making one of three possible decisions foUowing the
receipt of each bit: accept I as the bit being transmitted ~r eject
I as the bit being transmitted (i.e. , accept 0); or continue
transmission of the bit under consideration . The sequential
sampling procedure differs from fixed-length coding in that
the number of bits required to reach a fInal decision on a
message bit is not fixed before transmission, but depends on
the results accumulated with each transmissioD. The principal
advantage of the sequential sampling procedure as compared
with the other methods is that, on the average, fewer bits per
final decision are required for an equivalent degree of
reliability .
Use of the sequential sampling procedure requires the speci
fication of parameters that are determined on the basis of the
following considerations. Assume that a message bit (0 or 1)
is being transmitted. In the absence of Q priori knowledge, we
may assume equal probability (p = 0.5) for the two possibili
ties (0,1). Therefore. from the standpoint of the receiver, the
probability of correctly identifying the bit being transmitted is
P = 0.5 because of chance alone. An operative remote-sensing
channel could then be expected to alter the probability of
correct identification to a value P = 0.5 + .,p , where the param
eter Vi satisfies 0 < I Vi I < 0 .5. (The quantity may be positive
or negative depending on whether the paranormal channel
results in so-called psihitting or psi~mis.sing.) Good psi func
tioning on a repetitive tade has been observed to result in .,p =
0.12 , as reported by Ryzl [31 J. Therefore. to indicate the
design procedure, let us assume a baseline psi parameter
.,pb = 0.1 and design a communication system on this basis.

.....
10

Tr<lnsmlned

30

20

40

so

60

70

80

NUMBER OF TRIALS

Fig. 18 . Enhancement of signaJ-to -noise ratio by sequential sampling

procedure(Pe =O.4,P,

in order of decreasing frequency

iri English text. See, for example.

quency letters, X. Z. K , Q, and J,

have been grouped with similar
chua.cters to I?rovide space for
numerics in a Sbit code.) In
consideration of the uneven dis-
tribution of letter frequencies in
English text, this code i~ chosen
such that 0 and 1 have equal
probability.

. .'

DECISION 2
Accept '0" as
the B,t Being

=O . 6.Q=O .O l.~=O_01).

The question to be addressed is whether , after repeated

transmission, a given message bit is labeled a " I " at a low rate
Po commensurate with the hypothesis Ho that the bit in ques
tion is a "0," or at a higher rate PI commensurate with the
hypothesis HI that the bit in question is indeed a "1." The
decision-making process requires the specification of four
parameters.
Po The probability of labeling incorrectly a "0" message bit
as a "1." The probability of labeling correctly a "0" as
a "0" is p = 0.5 + Vib = 0.6 . Therefo re. the probability
of labeling incorrectly a ..
as a "I" is 1 - P = 0.4 = Po .
P I The probability of labeling correctly a "I" message bit
as a " I ," is given by PI = 0 .5 + Wb = 0.6.
Ct
The probability of rejecting a correct identifIcation for
a '0" (Type I error). We shall take", = O.OJ.
{3
The probability of accepting an incorrect identification
for a "I" (Type II error)_ We shall take ~ = 0.0 I.

a"

With the parameters thus specified, the sequential sampling

procedure provides for construction of a decision graph as
~own in Fig. 18. The equations for the upper and lower limit
lines are

L =d, +SN
L o =- do +SN
I

where
I - ~

1-

log -

log -

do=---~-

p, I-po

p , I - Po

Io g - -
Po 1 - PI

Io g - - -
Po I - PI
1 - Po
10g-

S = _ -----'I:...--"p-'-,_
PI 1 - Po
log--
Po 1- Pl

in which S is the slope, N is the number of trials , and d 1 and

do are the y-axis intercepts. A cumulative record of receiver
generated responses to the target bit is compiled until either

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. MARCH 1976

352

viewing, The target , determined by random procedure , was

White 's Plaza, a plaza with fountain at Stanford Universiry
(shown in Fig. 8). As is our standard protocol , the ex.peri
menter with (he subjec t is kept ignorant of the specific target
visited as well as the contents of the target pool. The experi
menter's s tatements and questions are itali cs.

1.0

>

u _
-="2

:-=

" E
c 0 .8

ro
'0
~

>~

~ ' <ii
.0.0
ro
.0 ~
0_ r~
o

0.6

o.~

-~

0.4

>- E

~
::; c

:S
-' s
w
a;

0.2

cr'O

.0.4 +0.2

"

-0.2 -0.4

(psi parameter)

Fig . 19 . ReliabIlity curve for sequential sampling procedure (Po = 0.4 ,

P 1 :.O . 6,c:r=O.Ol,tJ=O.O I ) .

the upper or the lower limit line is reached, at which point a

decision is made to accept 0 or 1 as the bit being transmitted.
Channel reliabiliry (pro bability of cor rectly determining
message being transmitted) as a function of operative psi
parameter'" is plotted in Fig. 19 . As observed, the sequential
. sampling procedure can result in 90 percent o r greater reliabili ty
with psi parameters on the order of a few percent.
Implementation of the sequential sampling procedure re
quires the transmission of a message coded in binary digits.
Th erefore, the target space must consist of dichotomous ele
ments such as the white and green cards used in the' experi
ments by Ryzl.
In operation , a sequence corresponding to the target bit (0
or I) is sent and the cumulative entries are made ( Fig. 18) until
a decision is reached to accept either a I or a 0 as the bit being
transmitted. At a prearranged time , the next sequence is
begun and continues as above until the entire message has been
received . A useful alternative, wh ich relieve s the percipient of
the burden of being aware of his self-contradiction from trial
to trial , co nsists of cycling thr ough the entire message repeti
tively and entering each response on its associated graph until
a decisi on has been reached o n all message bits. The authors
have used this technique successfully in a pilot study, but a
discussion of this would take us beyond the intended scop e of
this paper.
From the result s obtained in such experiments, the channel
bit rate can be ascertained for the system co nfiguration under
consideration. Furthennore, bit rates for other degrees of
reliability (i .e ., for other po, PI , 0 , and (1) can be estimated by
construction of other decisio n c urves over the same data base
and thus provide a measure of the bit rate per degree of
reliability.
In summary, the procedures described here can provide for a
specificatjon of the charac teristics of a remote-sensing channel
under well-defined conditions. These procedures also provide
for a determinatio n of the feasibility o f such a channel for
particu lar applications.
APPENDIX B
REM OTE-VIEWING TRANSCRIPT

Following is the unedited transcript of the first experiment

with an SRI volunteer (56) , a mathematician in the computer
science laboratory, with no previous experience in remote

Today is Monday , October 7th. It is 11 :00 and thisisa re

mOte viewing experiment with Russ Targ, Phyllis Cole, and Hal
Puth off In rh is exp eriment Hal will drive to a rem ote sile
chosen by a random process. Phyllis Cole will be the remote
viewer, and Russ Targ is the mo nitor. We expect this ex peri
menr to start at twenty minutes after eleven and ron [or fifo
teen minutes.
It is just abo ul twenty minutes afler eleven and Hal should
be a t his larget location by nOw.
Why don 't you tell me what kind o[ pictures you see and
what yo u think he m ighl be doing or experiencing.
The first thing that c ame to mind was some sort of a large,
square kind of a shape. Like Hal was Ln front of it. It was a
. .. not a building o r something, it was a square. I don't know
if it was a window , but so mething like that so th at the bottom
lin e of it was not at the gr ound . About where his waist was, at
least . That 's what it seemed to me . It seems outd oo rs some
ho w. Tree .
Does Hal seem 10 be loo king at that square ?
J don ' t know . The first lmpression was that he wasn't , but I
have a se nse that whatever it was was something one might
look at. I don 't know jf it would be a sign, but something that
one might look at.
Can you tell if it is on the gro und or vertical?
I~ seemed vertical.
I don ' t ha ve a sense that it was part o f any thing particular.
It might be on a building or part of a building, bu t I don ' t
know . There wa s a tree outside, but I also got the impression
of cement. I don 't have the impression of very many people
o r traffic either. I have the sense that he is sort of walking
back and forth. I don ' t have any more explicit picture than
that .
Can you move into where he is standing and try to see whal
he is looking al ?
I picked up he was t ou ching something -something rough .
Maybe warm and rough . Something possibly like cement.
II is twenty -four minutes after eleven.
Can you change your po int of view and m o ve above the
scene so you can get a bigger piclure of what's there ?
( still see so me trees and so me sort of pavement or some
thing like that . Might be a co urtyard . The thing that came to
m ind was it might be one of the plazas at Stanford campus or
something like that, cement.
Some kind s of landscaping.
I said Stanford campus when I started to see some things in
White Plaza, but I think that is misleading.
I have the sense that he 's not moving around too much.
Th at it 's in a small area .
I guess I'll go ahead and say it, but I'm afraid I'm just putting
on my impressions from Sta nford campus. I had the impres
sion of a fou ntain. There are two in the plaza, and it seemed
that HaJ was possibly near the , what they call Mem Claw.
What is that ?
It 's a fountain that looks rather like a claw . It's a black
sculpture. And it has benches around it made of cement.
Are there any buildings at tbe p14ce you are looking a t ? Are
there any buildings? Yo u described a kind of a co urtyard.

353

PUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFO RMATION TRAN SF ER

Usually at some places there should be a building, large or

small thatlhe courtyard is ab o ut. Look at the end or the sides
of the courtyard. Is there anything to be seen ?
1 have a sense that there are buildings. It 's no t solid build
ings. I mean there are some around the periphery and I have a
sense that no ne of them are very tall. Maybe mostly one story,
maybe an occasional two story one.
Do you have any better idea of what your square was that
you saw at the outset?
No. I could hazard different kinds of guesses.
Does it seem part of this scene?
It ... I think it could be. It co uld almost be a bulletin board
or something with notices on it maybe.
Or something that people are expected to look at. Maybe a
window with things in it that people were expected to look at.
Whatlcind of trees do you see in this place?
I don't know what kind they are. The impression was that
they were shade trees and not terribly big. Maybe 12 feet of
trunk and then a certain amount of branches above that. So
that the branches have maybe a 12 foot diameter, or some
thing. Not real big trees.
New trees rather than old trees?
Yeah, maybe 5 or 10 years old, but not real old ones.
Is there anything interesting about the pavement?
No. It seems to be not terribly new or terribly old. Not
very interesting. There seems to be some bits of landscaping
around. Little patches of grass around the edges and periph
eries. Maybe some flowers. But, not lush.
YOU,UlW some benches. Doyou want to tell me about them?
Well, that's my unsure feeling about this fountain. There
was some kind of benches of cement. Curved benches, it felt
like.
They were of rough cemen t.
What do you think Hal is doing while he is ,here?
I have a sense that he is looking at things trying to project
them. Looking at different things and sort of walking back
and forth not covering a whole lot of territory.
Sometimes standing still while he looks around.
I just had the impression of him talking, and I almost sense
that it was being recorded or something. I don't know if he
has a tape recorder, but if it's not that, then he is saying some
thing because it needed to be remembered. II's 11:33. He's
just probably getting ready to come back.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to thank the principal subjects, Mrs. Hella

Swann, who showed patience and
Hammid, Pat Price, and
forbearance in addition to their enthusiasm and outstanding
perceprual abilities. We note with sadness the death of one of
our subjects, Mr. Price. We express our sincere thanks also to
Earle Jones, Bonnar Cox, and Dr. Arthur Hastings, of SRI, and
Mrs. Judith Skutch and Richard Bach, without whose en
couragement and support this work could not have taken
place.

lnIo

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